Goods and services are going to get more expensive, and Americans across the nation—including students here at Bucknell—will feel the consequences. Donald Trump ran his 2024 campaign on the ideas of reducing costs of living for all Americans, and although he has only been in office for a week, I am willing to make a prediction that because of his attitude toward global trade, illegal immigrants and “wasteful” government spending, his vision won’t come to fruition for a while.
One of the main weapons in Trump’s arsenal is the threat of tariffs on other nations’ exports to the US. A tariff is just a tax on an imported good, making it more expensive for a foreign product to compete; for example, if Bucknell imported cookies from Penn State, and we put a tariff on them, their cookies would be much more expensive compared to Bucknell made cookies, deterring students away from buying of Penn State’s cookies and towards Bucknell’s. In practice, it sounds like a good idea to promote local businesses, but when done in large sweeps, tariffs can cause financial chaos and uncertainty; to see these effects in practice, let’s look at the recent US-Colombia tensions.
The US tried to send back two planes of illegal immigrants to Colombia, but the Colombian government refused to take them. As a result, Trump announced a 25% tariff on all imported Colombian goods. After some deliberations, Colombia decided to accept the immigrants and the tariffs were avoided. However, during the political back-and-forth between Trump and Colombia, the price of coffee surged! Turns out Colombia is the third largest producer of coffee in the world, supplying the US with 30% of our coffee and used by companies like Starbucks, Folgers and Peet’s— all of which were worried about the potential price hikes they would be forced into, affecting everyone. Ultimately the situation was stabilized, but what if it hadn’t been? When I go to grab a coffee from Bertrand Library, why should I have to pay for the irrational decisions made by Trump to force two planes into Colombia? And if he was so comfortable using tariffs the first week of holding power, what countries would he slap tariffs on next? What countries won’t be threatened by Trump? And what consequences will we all have to pay?
In addition to tariffs increasing the price of goods, there is also the potential for general foodstuffs made in the US to become more expensive. There are reports from Southern border states like Texas that ranchers and farmers haven’t been showing up to work; there are a substantial number of ranchers and farmhands who are illegal immigrants and are worried about going to work because of potential deportation. As a result, farms aren’t as productive, which threatens to raise food prices.
And finally, the price of eggs. A hyper fixation on the campaign trail by Trump and Vance. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Swearing to bring down the price of eggs, the Trump administration has been ignoring a critical threat to the egg industry: The bird flu. Across the US, the bird flu is spreading to chicken farms and killing them en masse. Therefore, eggs are becoming more expensive. The price rose from $6.55 per dozen on January 21st (the day after Trump took office) to $7.09 per dozen today. And while some may be skeptical that the bird flu is out of Trump’s control, he’s not helping the situation at all; Trump has been downplaying the situation and cutting communications between health bureaus as a way to reduce “wasteful” government spending. By limiting communication, Trump is preventing scientific research and aiding the spread of bird flu.
The Biden administration constantly got criticized for its high prices for American consumers, and rightfully so. Things were expensive. But Trump is now pursuing a path of an aggressive ideology, threatening food prices and global markets. I hope Trump has a plan for the economy that goes deeper than just tariffs and tax cuts for billionaires, but I suppose time will tell.