Commentary: Why businesses want to blame Trump for price hikes

If prices go up, do you care why?Businesses certainly think so, which is why they’re calling out the Trump tariffs, even at the risk of provoking a combative president.Trump’s new taxes on imported goods haven’t reignited inflation yet, but many economists think they’re about to. Overall, Trump has raised the average tariff on some $3 trillion of imported goods from 2.5% to about 18%. Most goods on shelves now come from pre-tariff inventories. But those supplies will soon start to run out, and many goods — including clothing, medicine, appliances, toys, cars, and car parts — will bear the higher cost of tariffs that in most cases add 10% to 30% to the cost of imported goods.The battle is fully underway over who should get the blame when higher prices hit consumers. Companies such as Walmart (WMT), Mattel (MAT), Microsoft (MSFT), and Ford (F) have said openly that tariffs will lead to higher costs for consumers. Trump has fired back, saying American businesses should “eat” the tariffs by fully absorbing the higher costs without charging consumers more.Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your walletTrump’s bully megaphone works, to some extent. Amazon (AMZN) considered, then abandoned, a plan to highlight the added cost of tariffs in a line item on its website, then backed down when Trump complained to executive chair Jeff Bezos. Some companies hope to avoid Trump’s ire by using elliptical language to explain price hikes. Subaru (7270.T), for instance, recently said it’s raising the price of several models because of “current market conditions,” with no mention of tariffs.But there's thorough evidence that consumers will end up bearing the cost of Trump's tariffs, and the blame game will intensify as consumers start to notice higher prices and get angry at… somebody. Businesses see it coming, and they have good reasons for trying to head off another hit to their reputation.Many consumers already blame corporate America for the elevated inflation that began in 2021 and peaked at a punishing 9% in 2022. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024, both hammered corporations for “price gouging,” even though research has shown they were mostly passing along their own higher costs.Consumers are already blaming big companies for Trumpflation, even if it's premature. New polling by Morning Consult finds that 57% of Americans blame US companies for tariff-related inflation, up from 34% when the research firm asked a similar question in January about tariffs that were then hypothetical.