April 07, 2026 12:52 PM UTC

Trump Tariffs Costing Colorado Families Bigly

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

As Jessica Alvarado Gamez reports for The Denver Post, the on-again, off-again, on-again Trump Tariffs cost Colorado families an average of at least $1,700 last year:

State Treasurer Dave Young said tariffs in Colorado have risen sevenfold, increasing from about 3% to 21%, the highest level in more than a century. He said these high costs are rippling across industries from agriculture and construction to energy and aerospace, and even coffee roasters.

“A Denver retailer recently reported that tariffs cost his business $25,000 last fall alone and across the state, Colorado businesses paid $1.1 billion in tariffs in 2025,” Young said. “For a small business that is not a formula for a thriving future, it’s a recipe for ruin.”

The treasurers’ call coincided with the release of a new “Liberation Day Report” from nonprofit For the Long Term, which details the economic impact of tariffs in the past year. The report said American families have paid more than $1,700 each in tariff costs and nearly 200,000 blue-collar jobs have been lost, including approximately 89,000 manufacturing jobs and nearly 124,000 transportation and warehousing jobs.

About 96% of the tariff burden was paid by U.S. consumers, foreign exporters absorbed 4%, the report says. The report also found that Trump’s tariffs hiked retail prices for domestic goods by nearly 5% on average, while economic growth “flatlined” to just 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2025. [Pols emphasis]

There can be no doubt that the Trump Tariffs are hurting Colorado families and small businesses:

In 2025, Polis directed OEDIT and state agencies to analyze the effects of tariffs across key industries, finding widespread cost increases, planning challenges, and market disruptions for Colorado businesses.

According to the OSPB’s March Colorado Economic and Revenue Outlook, actual U.S. tariff revenue in 2025 was $287.1 billion on $3.44 trillion in U.S. imports, resulting in a U.S. effective tariff rate of 8.3 percent, which is a 219% increase in the effective tariff rate from 2024.

When Trump said in 2024 that he would make things cheaper for Americans, he really meant “more expensive.” When Trump said in 2024 that he would be the “President of Peace” and not start new wars with other countries, he meant…

You get the idea.