American Living Standards Are A Sacrifice Trump Is Willing To Make

Trump and his allies say short-term economic pain, through higher prices on consumer goods, is worth the glory that tariffs will bring.

WASHINGTON — Higher prices on shoes and televisions. A stock market in freefall. Job losses in the very manufacturing-heavy industries the tariffs are allegedly supposed to protect.

For President Donald Trump and his allies, the results of his massive and unprecedented tariffs restricting American trade with every country in the world are just a bit of tough love to help America get stronger and return to a glorious past.

“We have communities and families with children, and dreams and aspirations for those children, and we’re no longer going to barter their future for cheap goods made in China,” Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) said Friday on Fox Business. “We do need to reorient this economy.”

To defend the tariffs, which are incredibly unpopular in public opinion polling, Trump administration officials, Republican members of Congress and conservative influencers have settled on a message dismissing short- and medium-term economic pain and insisting costlier consumer goods are unimportant in the long run. All that’s necessary, they insist, is to trust Trump.

“Losing money means nothing. Digital ones and zeroes. In the end, you won’t miss any of it,” said MAGA influencer Benny Johnson. “Losing your country costs you everything. You will never get that back. Your kids will be slaves to foreign powers who hate us.”