Liberation Day….or Isolation Day?

About a year ago, Trump rolled out what he dramatically called “Liberation Day”… basically cranking tariffs up to about 22.5%, one of the highest levels in modern U.S. history. The pitch? This would “rebirth American industry.”

Markets immediately said…yeah, no. Stocks got shaky, businesses panicked, and within days, the administration started backing off and tweaking the policy.

Then it got even messier….the Supreme Court stepped in and ruled that using emergency powers for these tariffs wasn’t legal. So the rate dropped to around 11.6%….still way higher than anything we’ve seen since World War II.

Not to be deterred, Trump just went around that ruling and slapped on a new 10% across-the-board tariff, with talk of bumping it to 15%. Because apparently if something doesn’t work the first time…you just hit the gas harder 🙃...come on folks .....

So…how’s this “greatest economy ever” plan actually going?

Here’s the twist….the world didn’t start a big trade war with us. They did something smarter.

They just…went around us.

Other countries started trading more with each other, cutting deals, lowering barriers, and basically saying, “We’ll just do business without the U.S., thanks.” Economists are calling it one of the biggest peacetime shifts in global trade ever.

Translation: we didn’t win the game…we got left off the field.

Back home, the impact is pretty straightforward:

• Prices go up for consumers

• U.S. companies pay more for parts and materials

• American goods get more expensive and less competitive

And here’s the kicker most people miss….over half of U.S. imports are actually PARTS used by American businesses. So tariffs aren’t just hitting “foreign goods”…they’re hitting American production itself.

That means:
👉 higher costs
👉 lower efficiency
👉 slower growth

Economists estimate tariffs like this could push prices up another 9% a year and shave economic growth down at the same time. NINE PERCENT PER YEAR!!!!
So $1 item becomes:

Year 1 → $1.09
Year 2 → $1.19
Year 3 → $1.30
Year 4 → $1.41
Year 5 → $1.54

Investors aren’t buying the crap either.

While U.S. markets used to dominate, last year they got outperformed by pretty much everyone else:

• Germany

• Japan

• Canada

• South Korea (which absolutely blew the doors off)

Markets are forward-looking….and they’re basically signaling: “The rest of the world is adapting. The U.S. is making things harder on itself.”

Now let’s look at actual economic performance….

Compared to 2024 (which Trump called “dead”…because of course he did):

• Growth slowed (2.8% → 2.1%)

• Job growth dropped (1.2% → 0.5%)

• Manufacturing jobs actually fell faster

• Investment (both foreign and domestic) weakened

Even foreign companies…who were supposedly lining up to invest in America…didn’t show up in the numbers. Turns out businesses prefer stability over political pressure. Weird, right? SMH .... Holy cow it's just now 11:38 feels like 3 or 4:00

💥 Bottom line

Trump’s first term started with tax cuts and deregulation…and the economy grew.

This time? The big policy shift was tariffs….the highest since the Great Depression.

And surprise surprise…

👉 Growth slowed
👉 Jobs slowed
👉 Investment slowed
👉 Manufacturing didn’t come roaring back

😏 Plain English version

If the economy was “dead” before… this policy didn’t revive it….

It just made everything more expensive while the rest of the world quietly moved on without us.