Over two terms, the Trump Administration has imposed increasingly high steel and aluminum tariffs. In new research, Director of Trade Policy Jacob Jensen, Director of Energy and Environmental Policy Shuting Pomerleau, and Natalie George review the history of these metal tariffs and the economic impacts they have had over time.

Key points:

• The president’s tariff agenda had a goal of boosting domestic employment and production of steel and aluminum, but instead of a job or production boom, they have delivered higher prices – and foreign retaliation with far wider economic damages.
• Following President Trump’s comparatively moderate first-term steel and aluminum tariff hikes, his second-term’s 50-percent tariff regime has dramatically worsened the impact.
• These tariffs have resulted in the loss of an estimated 228,000 full-time jobs, driven an estimated 67-percent increase in one bellwether steel price in the last year alone, and increased estimated tariff costs by over 400 percent for steel and 700 percent for aluminum between 2024 and 2025.

Read the analysis.