USA Today: Trump’s policies raised costs for all but the top 1%, report says
The Trump administration’s economic policies have driven up taxes and costs for all but the wealthiest 1% of Americans, according to a new analysis from an economic think tank.
A typical American consumer, someone in the middle 20% by income, will pay about $1,700 more in taxes and other costs in 2026 because of Trump’s policies, the report found. The poorest 20% will pay about $750 more.
Only the top 1% of earners will pay less: $12,560 less, according to the report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a left-leaning think tank.
The Oct. 8 release focuses on three major policy changes under the second Trump administration: new tax provisions enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits from the COVID-19 era, and price increases triggered by tariffs, the Iran war and immigration actions.
Those added costs may help explain why consumer confidence stands near an all-time low, and why household debt is rising, at a time when the U.S. economy appears strong on other measures.
“No matter how much the Trump administration touts the tax cuts that they’ve enacted, they can’t get around the fact that they’ve caused increased costs that more than offset those tax cuts by a lot for most people, except for the rich,” said Steve Wamhoff, federal tax policy director at ITEP.
According to Wamhoff, the point of the report is to show how Americans have actually experienced the economy in the second Trump administration.
ITEP estimates Trump’s other “price-increasing” policies, including tariffs, immigration crackdowns and waging war in Iran, will cost the same middle-income consumer $1,850 in 2026. That figure estimates inflation caused by Trump’s policies.
Another major policy shift covered in the report is the expiration of COVID-era health care tax credits that lowered the cost of health insurance for millions of Americans under the Affordable Care Act.
The ITEP analysis counts that as a policy decision by the Trump administration, one that will cost the average middle-income American $230 in 2026.
“When you put together all of the policies that really affect the taxes and the costs of Americans, the typical American in every income group is worse off, except Americans in the richest 1%,” Wamhoff said. “That’s the one group for whom the tax cuts they get are big enough to exceed the excess costs of the other policies of the Trump administration.”
But the biggest new cost to most Americans, the report says, comes from new Trump policies that raised consumer prices: tariffs, the Iran war and restrictive immigration policies.
The report compares actual price increases in the second Trump administration with inflation projections from the Congressional Budget Office when he reclaimed the presidency. Trump’s policies will cost middle-income Americans an extra $1,850 in 2026, the report says.
Add it all up, the ITEP report says, and nearly every group of American earners will pay more in taxes and added costs in 2026 because of Trump’s economic policies.
The poorest 20% by income will pay an extra $750, the report says. The middle 20% will pay an extra $1,700. Everyone else, up to the 98th percentile by income, pays at least an extra $1,000.
The wealthiest 1%, by contrast, will spend $12,560 less in taxes and other costs in 2026.
Why would the top 1%, alone, save money from Trump’s policies?
The reason, ITEP says, is the Trump tax cuts. Inflationary policies will cost the top 1% an extra $15,990 in 2026, the report says. But new tax cuts will save them $28,550.
Other analysts have reached similar conclusions about the Trump tax cuts. The Congressional Budget Office, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and others have found that tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act favor high-income households.
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