Tariffs
$209
Cost to your household this month
$2,511
Total household cost in 2026
Why should I care?
The president has limited, specific power to set tariffs, as determined by Congress. He then used an emergency law (the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, known as IEEPA) meant for sanctions, not tariffs, allowing him to skip oversight. The Supreme Court ruled them illegal. Trump continues to impose tariffs under different justifications. Connected companies get exemptions; you do not.
Between February 2025 and January 2026, Trump's tariffs cost each household an average of $1,745.
"IEEPA authorizes the President to 'investigate, block…regulate, direct and compel, nullify, void, prevent or prohibit…importation or exportation.' Absent from this lengthy list of powers is any mention of tariffs or duties."
— Chief Justice John Roberts, majority opinion, Learning Resources v. Trump, February 20, 2026
What's IEEPA? The International Emergency Economic Powers Act lets the president freeze assets, block transactions, and restrict trade with a specific foreign adversary during a declared national emergency — think sanctions on a hostile government. It has never once been used to impose tariffs, and the law's text doesn't mention tariffs or duties at all. The Supreme Court agreed: that's simply not what the law is for.
Legal whack-a-mole
After the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs, the administration didn't stop — it just switched to other legal authorities, some legitimate and long-standing, some brand new and untested.
| Authority Used | Legal Status | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| IEEPA "emergency" tariffs | Ruled unlawful | Imposed 2025; struck down Feb. 20, 2026 |
| Section 122 stopgap tariff (10%) | Ruled unlawful & expired | Struck down by U.S. Court of International Trade, May 2026; separately expired July 24, 2026 |
| Section 232 (national security) | Legal, established authority | Long-standing law; still in active use |
| Section 301 (unfair trade practices) | Legal, established authority | Long-standing law; still in active use |
| Section 338 (Canada, 50% tariff) | Untested in court | First-ever use of this 1930 authority; imposed July 2026 |
| Exemption | Beneficiaries | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Smartphones, computers, semiconductors, solar cells, TV displays, flash drives, memory cards & SSDs — exempted from IEEPA "reciprocal" tariffs | Apple (named in every report), plus Dell and Nvidia (each named in at least one report), and the broader electronics industry by extension | April 2025 |
| Imported patented pharmaceuticals — up to 3-year tariff exemption | 14 of the largest drugmakers in exchange for drug-pricing deals: Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, EMD Serono, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech/Roche, Gilead, GSK, Merck, Novartis & Sanofi | Oct.–Dec. 2025 |
"… the Administration has considered and granted tariff exclusions behind closed doors, through an opaque and unaccountable process that has provided limited opportunity for Americans to engage," and that it "appears to have created a closed-door tariff exclusion process allowing relief largely for those with political connections."
— Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) & Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), February 4, 2026
The pharmaceutical exemptions are an explicit trade: sign a drug-pricing deal with the administration, get up to 3 years of tariff protection in return. Beyond these two confirmed categories, we don't know the full list — because the process itself isn't public.
Sources
Source for both household cost figures above: $1,745 for the first year (Feb. 2025–Jan. 2026) and $2,511 projected for 2026 if January's tariff rates hold all year. Published March 2026.
An independent estimate putting the household cost even higher — $2,700/year long-run, $4,700 short-run purchasing-power loss. Cited here for comparison; the JEC figures are what's used in the stat cards above.
The majority opinion striking down IEEPA tariffs, February 20, 2026. Source for the pull-quote above.
Coverage of the Court of International Trade ruling, May 2026.
Source for the first-ever use of Section 338, July 2026.
Names Apple and Dell as beneficiaries, April 2025.
Names Nvidia as a beneficiary, April 2025.
Source for the full exempted product list (solar cells, TV displays, flash drives, memory cards, SSDs), April 2025.
Source for the pharmaceutical tariff-exemption-for-pricing-deal list, December 2025.
The original February 4, 2026 letter — source for the verbatim Wyden/Van Hollen quotes above.
News coverage of the letter, February 4, 2026.