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Americans Wrestle With How Trump’s Tariffs May Change Shopping Lists
Charlene and Phil Willingham had been thinking for a while about replacing the 20-year-old appliances in their kitchen, but with the sudden prospect of rising costs, they decided that this was the moment. The Willinghams, both retired, turned up at a store in the suburbs of Chicago on Friday with a long shopping list: stove, refrigerator, microwave oven and dishwasher.
“We were going to take our time to get new appliances, but now because of these tariffs, I want to get them before any price increases take place,” Ms. Willingham, 64, said while shopping at the Abt Electronics store in Glenview, Ill. Of the Trump administration’s sweeping announcement of tariffs across the globe last week, she said, “It sort of set the fire.”
In grocery stores, car dealerships, malls and big discount chains around the country, interviews with more than two dozen Americans this weekend showed that many were racing to figure out how to get ahead of the new tariffs plan, quickly making calculated purchases, big and small.
“The panic is enough to make me want to buy,” Shali Santos, 28, said, after stocking up on essentials in bulk — water, soap, mouthwash — at a Costco Wholesale store in Marina del Rey, a waterfront community in Los Angeles County, and noticing that many people around her seemed to be stocking up more than usual on similar staples.
Others said their shopping habits were unchanged by the tariffs announcement, largely because they had patience and trust in the president’s long game, and figured that any short-term pain, including potential cost increases, would work itself out.
“I’m confident it will recover,” Gregg Harris, 61, said as he shopped for food at a Walmart in Nashville.
Nearly all, though, expressed lingering uncertainty about exactly how these tariffs — at least a 10 percent government surcharge on nearly all goods imported into the United States as well as higher rates on goods from many countries — would play out in their daily lives. How and when might prices be affected by President Trump’s moves? What items might be most hard hit? Even if they knew the answers to such questions, some asked, could they really afford purchasing big ticket items right now to avoid higher costs later?
“He’s doing a lot, which, I mean, that feels like a change, which can be refreshing,” said Mitchell Kwapick, 28, as he shopped for a nephew’s birthday gift at Target in suburban Milwaukee. “But it’s a lot of stuff that’s scary right now.”
The announcements of the tariffs quickly tanked global markets, dealing a blow to investment portfolios, and economists say many of the costs associated with the tariffs will be passed on to consumers. Supporters said the tariffs would ultimately bring jobs back in the United States, while opponents said they would upend the economy.
Among people interviewed at stores this weekend, levels of concern about rising prices — and new urgency to beat any effects of tariffs — seemed closely tied to partisan alliances.
At the Abt Electronics store in Glenview, where business was swift, Laura Papa, 44, came in with her family looking for a new wall oven and refrigerator.
“We were hoping to wait until the summer, but then this fiasco happened,” said Ms. Papa, an accountant who voted for Kamala Harris in November. She said that she viewed tariffs as likely to wreck the nation’s economy and offered advice to others browsing in the store: “You better get stuff before the price increases come.”
In Marina del Rey, Tamela Plaine, who also works as an accountant and voted for Ms. Harris, said she began to worry about tariffs immediately after Mr. Trump was elected, and rushed out to buy a Hyundai S.U.V. before he took office to avoid rising prices.
After the tariffs were announced last week, Ms. Plaine, 48, said she felt compelled to shop in bulk for a wide range of items at Costco in case their price tags started rising. But she said she also was hemmed in by circumstances that many Americans may be facing: a sense that the costs of ordinary items already are too high and that front-loading big expenses now is not affordable.
“I did panic when I got in there,” Ms. Plaine said of her urge to stock up as much as possible while at Costco. “But I was just like, I have to calm down, because I’m still check-to-check.”
Ms. Plaine said her worries about budgeting and rising costs have even led her to lose sleep in recent days. “I try not to freak out,” she said.
But many shoppers who had voted for Mr. Trump said they were not adjusting their buying habits at all based on tariffs.
“I love them,” Dixon Witherspoon, 66, said of tariffs as he shopped for an oven lightbulb at a Target in Nashville. “The problem with America is everybody is worried about their quarterly stock report and everything is short-term vision, which is not good for anything.”
Mr. Witherspoon, a retired executive in the insurance sector who said his own stock portfolio had seen significant losses, said he expects tariffs to enhance the nation’s manufacturing independence and make a fairer playing field for U.S. businesses. “Tariffs are going to be painful in the short run, but in the long run, they are going to be wonderful,” he said.
In Milwaukee, J.J. Kennedy, who said he strongly supports President Trump, said he did not expect his shopping habits to shift following the launching of tariffs.
Mr. Kennedy, who owns an architectural design company and was buying computer keyboards at a Best Buy, acknowledged that tariffs had sparked concern and confusion in the construction industry, and that new home prices could be affected.
Still, he did not expect it to matter.
“People are just going to pay the difference,” Mr. Kennedy, 45, said. “Inventory is so low around here, it’s unbelievable.”
Many shoppers said the prospect of tariffs simply added to anxiety about an already unforgiving economy. Even if prices had yet to surge, uncertainty about what was ahead and sudden declines to retirement savings accounts were worrying signs.
“Either directly or indirectly, everyone’s impacted — 401(k)s, my stocks have been impacted, my mother’s pension is being impacted, a lot of people’s investments are being impacted,” said Alonzo Beyene, the owner of a technology business who was shopping in Miami on Saturday morning.
In Milwaukee, Juanita Norris said her retirement account lost $8,000 in just two days.
“That’s $8,000 that could have gone toward a car for my kids,” she said.
She was planning to help them buy a car this spring, she said, but if prices rise, she will need to wait anyway.
Back at the appliance store in Illinois, the Willinghams studied a stainless steel six-burner stove.
Both Democrats, they contemplated the point of the tariffs.
“I don’t see how it benefited the American people,” Ms. Willingham said. “I really hope and pray things can be resolved soon.”
Mr. Willingham, 65, was more resigned: “It is what it is,” he said.
Robert Chiarito contributed reporting from Glenview, Ill., Mimi Dwyer from Los Angeles, Jamie McGee from Nashville, Dan Simmons from Milwaukee, and Verónica Zaragovia from Miami.
At least two structural columns buckled and failed in a 37-story office tower in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, prompting evacuations of nearby streets and buildings. While city officials asserted that the tower was in no danger of collapsing completely, outside engineers said further failures in the structure could not be ruled out.
A pair of columns that failed completely were part of the tower’s existing structure. A New York Times review of images and videos from inside the building has found that several floors were added atop these columns.
City officials said in a news conference on Tuesday that the building was continuing to move, while they simultaneously assured the city that the building would not suffer “total collapse.” “The way this building is constructed, it’s a steel-frame building,” John Esposito, a chief in the Fire Department in New York, said at the afternoon news conference. “So, it would not be a total collapse. It would be more of a localized collapse.” Still, he said, “that remains our concern, that it’s moved.”
Engineers said that the movement itself was cause for concern. In a properly designed steel building, they said, loads should redistribute quickly to surviving structural supports if columns failed.
Joe DiPompeo, a former president of the Structural Engineering Institute at the American Society of Civil Engineers, said that if the structure had been overloaded, he would expect any movement “to happen very quickly,” rather than gradually.
“Generally when a column buckles, it’s a sudden failure,” Mr. DiPompeo said. He said that a full collapse remained unlikely given the redundancies built into the building codes.
Engineers often refer to the most dangerous possibility as a progressive collapse, a process in which structures near the initial failure become overstressed and also fail, potentially bringing down the building if the sequence continues. While unlikely, it cannot be ruled out, Mr. DiPompeo said.
Footage recorded from inside the building shows at least two structural columns appear to have failed completely, Mr. DiPompeo said. Other nonstructural, interior walls — or at least the metal “studs” that were in place to hold them up — also appear to have deformed.
“The only way that really happens is if the floor above them dropped. It looks like the floor above could have dropped a foot or two, which is obviously not a good situation,” Mr. DiPompeo said.
The 37-story building is in the process of being converted from office space into residential units. Four new floors and a large vertical portion were added onto the existing building in recent months. The vertical portion consists of a stack of over a dozen new floors cantilevered out over the existing building below.
Engineers said that there was nothing inherently wrong with adding residential floors or the cantilevered section above the columns that failed, as long as the original structure and the modifications had properly accounted for the added weight and wind loads.
“The cantilever alone doesn’t change anything,” Mr. DiPompeo said, but it does put additional load on the columns underneath — a factor that should have been reflected in the design.
Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, the developer overseeing the conversion, said on Tuesday that “this incident is nothing more than a typical construction mishap.”
He said two columns near the northwest corner of the tower had bent under the weight of additions to the building above, most likely because those columns had not been properly reinforced, though he said an investigation would determine the cause. The rest of the columns, he said, “picked up the weight.” He estimated the affected floors above the failed columns had sagged by a maximum of four inches.
Mr. Berman said that he expected the problems to be fixed and the project to be completed with, at most, a slight delay.
On Tuesday evening, installation of temporary shoring was set to begin shortly, in order to help stabilize the 20th and 21st floors of the building.
The Justice Department sent letters warning election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that they could face criminal prosecution over noncitizen voting, a spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday.
The letters, signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads up the department’s Civil Rights Division, give states five days to explain how they will comply with federal voter eligibility laws and how they will maintain “clean voter lists.”
“The Department sent these letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.
Noncitizen voting in federal elections is extremely rare, but Trump and his administration have falsely portrayed it as a widespread issue.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar and Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson are among those who said they received the letters from the Justice Department.
The letters say state election officers “could be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting” noncitizen voting. They further specify that any election officer who knowingly retains noncitizens on a statewide voting registration list or who facilitates noncitizens’ receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability.
“An intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens could also constitute a violation” of federal law, the letters said.
Henderson wrote on social media that the threats constitute “truly bizarre behavior.”
“Got another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution,” she wrote. “I’m sure I’m not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ’s demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts.”
The letters are the latest move in the Justice Department’s campaign to assert more federal control over state elections.
While some states have complied with the administration’s demands that they hand over voter roll data, the Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for resisting. So far, 11 different federal courts have dismissed the Justice Department’s efforts to seize voter rolls.
Lionel Messi #10 of Argentina celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during their World Cup match against Egypt in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Elsa/Getty Images
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Elsa/Getty Images
They looked beaten. And out. Argentina, the defending World Cup champion and No. 1-ranked team, was down 2-0 late against Egypt.
Then, in a span of 13 remarkable minutes, Argentina scored not once, not twice, but three times, capping a comeback for the ages and leaving Egypt stunned and shellshocked.
For much of the game in Atlanta, Egypt was in control, hobbling Argentina early. The Egyptian attack began almost immediately with a stunning header goal delivered by Yasser Ibrahim in the 15th minute. After that, Egypt’s defense closed ranks, making it practically impossible for Argentina to equalize.
It was downhill from there for the Argentines: team captain Lionel Messi failed to convert a penalty kick, and in the 67th minute, Egypt got a second goal from Mostafa Ziko (after an earlier Egyptian goal had been disallowed after a video review). It looked like Argentina was finished. On the brink of elimination.
But no one told the Argentine players that.
In the 79th minute, Lionel Messi began doing his thing. He fired a cross near the Egyptian goal, and Cristian Romero headed it in. Messi was not done. Four minutes later, he powered a shot past the Egyptian keeper. It was his eighth goal of this tournament, the most of any player. The score was 2-2.
Then, in stoppage time, yet another Argentina header and another goal, this time from Enzo Fernandez.
“This is the World Cup for you,” said Messi after the game. “It wasn’t easy to come back from two goals down. But as I always say, this group never gives up. We always try to fight until the end.”
French referee François Letexier speaks with Egypt forward Mohamed Salah during the World Cup Round of 16 match between Argentina and Egypt in Atlanta.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
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Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
Afterward, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan complained about the French referee and the officiating. “I am not convinced. I am not convinced with this outcome. I’m not convinced with the way things unfolded during this match,” said Hassan in a post-match news conference. “We have been treated unfairly today. We have suffered injustice.”
“We would have deserved to earn this win, but we are leaving with honor, with pride, regardless of this defeat,” said Hossan.
African soccer teams have been the stars of this World Cup. Morocco has yet to lose a game. Cape Verde qualified for the first time in its history and stymied Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. Argentina barely beat them in a nail-biter of a match.
For Egypt, getting this far in the tournament is historic in itself: it’s the first time the team has made it this far. For Argentina, it was a terrifying yet relieving victory: several players, including Messi himself, cried after the game.
Next, they move to the quarterfinals and will play the winner of today’s Switzerland-Colombia match.
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