The engine that fueled the Biden economy is sputtering under Trump

Persistent economic uncertainty has consumers taking a cautious approach to spending, particularly in discretionary categories,

Target CEO Brian Cornell said on an earnings call last week

We’ve never seen this kind of breadth of tariffs. This, of course, impacts the whole (retail) industry,

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said on a call with analysts last week

The outlook has been impacted by the recent reduction in consumer and corporate confidence caused by increased macro uncertainty, driving softness in Domestic demand,

Delta said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission

Randy Johnsonnate

This is what’s required in my mind to start the process of repairing and restoring the American economy,

Johnson said

It’s hard to want a recession, but I think that’s the only way tariffs would not be inflationary,

said The Liscio Report’s Philippa Dunne

For anyone who voted for Donald Trump on his promise to lower prices, it’s going to be a shock and potentially infuriating that prices haven’t gone down – and instead, they’ve gone up,

said Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute’s Stiefel Trade Policy Center

The reality is Trump has attached himself to tariffs. He has pushed to the forefront that tariffs increase prices. The cake is baked unless the tariffs go away,

said Lincicome

Randy Johnsonnate

The president is in a tight spot, and every tariff (or threatened tariff) makes his position more difficult,

said Simon Johnson, professor of global economics and management at MIT

Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people,

she said during a press briefing,

Investors are concerned this will become an own-goal, manufactured economic slowdown,

said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management

The just announced tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum are the worst trade policy yet. Increasing the price of key inputs for the US manufacturing industries–who employ 10 million people–is what a U.S. adversary would do,

Summers posted on X Tuesday

Larry FinkblackRock CEO

I think if we all are becoming a little more nationalistic and - I'm not saying that's a bad thing, you know, it does resonate with me ... (but) it's going to have elevated inflation,

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said on Monday

I'm not even looking at the stock market."

Perhaps the most telling Trump comment in the unfolding battle was

All of those millions of people with 401(k)s and pensions are doing far better than they have ever done before with increases of 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100% and even more."

Back in his State of the Union address to Congress in February 2020, Trump said of the stock market

The Trump trade really started post-election in a real sense on the heels of what appeared to be a pro-growth, pro-business administration taking over,

Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management told AFP

So stop with the tariffs, it’s the leverage that we need to protect ― ... He needs to stop the tariffs.”

said Pirro, before Tarlov interjected

I’ll test your knowledge on economics, Jesse. Are tariffs a tax on the American consumer?”

Tarlov asked

Did you know that Richard Nixon ... began the pickup truck industry in this country because of a tariff on the Europeans? Did you know that Reagan slapped tariffs on Japan and ended up triggering a semiconductor renaissance in this country,

Watters said

Because you have enough money to survive it,

said Tarlov of Pirro, again interrupting

I'm very optimistic about the country, we're going to have the greatest markets we've ever had,

he said