New Report Finds Trump Tariff Upheaval Empowers Companies to Hike Prices on Consumers

July 29, 2025

New Report Finds Trump Tariff Upheaval Empowers Companies to Hike Prices on Consumers

Today, Groundwork Collaborative released a new analysis showing how President Trump’s erratic tariff policies are providing corporations with ample opportunity to hike prices on consumers. The research — assembled from dozens of earnings calls and reports — offers multiple examples of large public companies that have publicly admitted to capitalizing on the tariff-induced market uncertainty to further squeeze families’ pocketbooks. As Trump continues to stoke uncertainty and upheaval with his on-again, off-again tariffs, the latest analysis suggests consumers can expect to keep paying higher prices on essentials.

In a paper recently published in the Journal of Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Implicit Coordination in Sellers’ Inflation: How Cost Shocks Facilitate Price Hikes, economist Isabella Weber detailed how the economy-wide supply-side cost shocks provided an implicit coordination mechanisms for companies to raise prices, protecting or increasing profits. Groundwork was one of the first to explore and expose the link between corporate profits, pricing strategies, and inflation. Trump’s broad, indiscriminate tariffs and the economic volatility that has resulted present a similar opportunity.

Groundwork Collaborative’s Executive Director Lindsay Owens released the following statement on the report’s findings:

“President Trump’s turbulent trade policy has created a perfect storm of market chaos, giving corporations a golden opportunity to jack up prices, pad profit margins, and fleece Americans simply because they can. We already know that when inflation started to tick up, companies exploited market conditions to charge consumers more and rake in record-breaking profits. It turns out the corporate playbook on tariffs is exactly the same. While Trump’s tariffs continue to cause economic upheaval, corporations are exploiting the chaos and working families are left to foot the bill.”

KEY FINDINGS:

Today’s report includes findings from corporate earnings calls, including detailed strategies and justifications described by company executives in Q1 2025 earnings calls to jack up prices and boost profits in response to the tariffs. The examples draw from companies that operate in a range of sectors including apparel, baby products, footwear, food, retail, security products, vehicles, pool equipment, power generation, and air conditioning.