It is a silent tremor that creeps into the balance sheets of American households – slowly, insidiously, but inexorably. The United States is experiencing an explosive increase in the amounts citizens are paying in tariffs and excise taxes, and hardly anyone seems to notice. Yet the newly published chart by economist Joseph Politano, based on data from the U.S. Treasury Department, paints a dramatic picture: within just a few months, revenue from tariffs and so-called DHS excise taxes has surged to over 300 billion dollars a year – a historic high that makes even the economic disruptions of the Trump I trade wars seem like footnotes.
For many years, the curve remained stable. Between 2005 and 2017, tariff revenues hovered in a corridor between 40 and 50 billion dollars. Even during Donald Trump's first term, when the confrontation with China led to the introduction of the first punitive tariffs, the numbers rose – but within manageable limits. People got used to it, the way one grows accustomed to a small swelling – noticeable, but not paralyzing. Only with Trump's inauguration in January 2025 did the line begin to warp – tentatively at first, then explosively. What followed was a near-vertical climb that may look like a numerical jump on paper, but in reality serves as painful evidence of a tectonic shift in U.S. economic policy.
This leap is no accident. It is politically intended – a core component of the aggressive protectionist policy with which President Trump began his second term. Tariffs are now being slapped on everything – steel, batteries, microchips, medications, solar panels, clothing, cars. These are markups of 60, 80, even 100 percent, layered over import prices like a lead blanket. And it is not the Chinese, the Europeans, or the Mexicans who are paying these tariffs – it is the Americans themselves. Consumers, families, businesses, farmers, retailers, gas station owners. Everyone pays, often without knowing what for.
The president calls it "America First," but it is a fiscal placebo – a measure that simulates strength while eroding substance. Because the economic logic is as old as it is relentless: tariffs make imports more expensive. More expensive imports drive prices. Rising prices reduce purchasing power. And all this in an economy deeply entangled in global supply chains – not reliant on tariffs, but on open access. Trump's new tariff agenda functions like a tax – only it was not debated in Congress, but decreed overnight. It hits especially those without a voice: commuters whose auto parts become more costly, families whose children's clothing suddenly costs twice as much, small businesses that can no longer offer their products competitively.
It is an invisible redistribution – from the bottom up, from consumers to government, from reality to ideology. Those who examine the chart are not looking at a tax curve – they are staring at a political creed. And as with all creeds, the price is often higher than the gain. Trump relies on the illusion that walls, barriers, and duties can protect a country – while they hollow it out from within. The tariffs that now generate hundreds of billions annually are not revenues to be proud of. They are the symptoms of a policy of isolation that pretends to create prosperity but in truth reallocates it – upward, into the center of power.
It is telling that this massive surge is scarcely discussed in public. No outcry on the evening news, no resonance in Congress. The Republican majority supports the course, many Democrats keep their heads down. But the longer this trend continues, the clearer it becomes: the country is paying a high price for a policy that claims to be a shield – and has long since become a weapon against its own people.
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