US businesses and consumers paid about 90% of the cost of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs last year — contradicting his repeated claims that foreign countries were footing the bill, according to a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
In the first eight months of 2025, 94% of the cost of tariffs was borne by American businesses and consumers, study found.
In September and October, that share slipped to 92%, and in November it fell further to 86% as foreign exporters picked up a larger share of the costs, according to the report.
“Our results show that the bulk of the tariff incidence continues to fall on US firms and consumers,” the authors of the study wrote in a blog post. “[They] continue to bear the bulk of the economic burden of the high tariffs imposed in 2025.”
Trump has insisted foreign nations have been baring the brunt of the costs.
“Billions of dollars, largely from countries that have taken advantage of the United States for many years, laughing all the way, will start flowing into the USA,” he wrote August on Truth Social in all-caps.
In responding to the New York Fed study, White House spokesperson Kush Desai told the Financial Times: “America’s average tariff rate has increased nearly sevenfold in the past year — yet inflation has cooled and corporate profits have increased.
“The reality is that President Trump’s economic agenda of tax cuts, deregulation, tariffs and energy abundance are reducing costs and accelerating economic growth,” he added.
The findings come as Trump is weighing a rollback of some steel and aluminum tariffs amid mounting political pressure ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to the Financial Times.
The president imposed duties of up to 50% on metal imports last summer and later expanded the levies to a wide range of products made from those materials, including household appliances and cars.
Administration officials are now reviewing which goods could be exempted and are expected to halt further expansion of the tariff list, the FT reported.
Instead, they would shift toward more targeted national security investigations when determining which duties should remain in place.
The metals tariffs have pushed average US import duties to their highest levels in decades and triggered backlash from some Republican lawmakers, who have joined Democrats in supporting legislation to overturn certain levies.
The Supreme Court has been weighing Trump’s tariffs, though the White House reportedly has a plan B to keep the levies in place if the legal justification for the current regime is deemed unconstitutional.
Supporters of the tariff strategy point to the surge in federal revenue as a clear win.
The US collected $30 billion in customs duties in January alone, bringing the fiscal year-to-date total to $124 billion — a 304% increase from the same period a year earlier.
For calendar year 2025, tariff collections reached $287 billion, nearly tripling the previous year’s haul, while the Tax Foundation projects the levies will raise $171.1 billion in 2026, making them the largest tax increase since 1993.
The January deficit fell 26% year over year, with the fiscal year-to-date gap down 17%, underscoring the revenue impact.
Backers of tariffs also argue that the levies have spurred domestic investment and supply-chain diversification.
Stellantis has pledged $13 billion over four years for US factories, Toyota committed $10 billion over five years, and Mercedes shifted SUV production to Alabama.
Beyond the auto sector, Apple announced $600 billion in US investment, TSMC committed $165 billion to semiconductor plants in Arizona, and Hyundai pledged $26 billion, including a new Louisiana steel facility.
Meanwhile, China’s share of US imports has fallen below 10% in 2025, down from nearly 25% in 2017, as Mexico and Vietnam gained ground — a shift advocates say reduces dependence on a single foreign supplier.
The Post has sought comment from the White House.
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