America’s business class is openly admitting to using the president’s tariffs as “great cover” for its rising prices.
A report published Tuesday by the Groundwork Collaborative found that executives were, in their own words, taking advantage of Donald Trump’s unstable tariff policies to jack up the price tags on consumer goods. Analyzing earnings calls from major corporations in the first half of 2025, Groundwork found executives admitted that they intended to raise costs even if they were not affected by the administration’s economic agenda.
The CEO of auto parts manufacturer Holley, Matthew Stevenson, reportedly said that the marketplace had showcased “price increases well in excess of what we put out into the market.” He noted that “we’ve seen increases as high as 30 percent or more on some categories from some competitors.”
Aaron Jagdfeld, the CEO of generator manufacturer Generac Power Systems, claimed on an earnings call that “even if we have metals that weren’t impacted directly by tariffs, the indirect effect of tariffs is that it gives steel producers and the mills and other fabricators … great cover for increased pricing in some cases.”
In their first quarter, the world’s largest wholesale distributor of pool supplies, POOLCORP, reported to their shareholders that they “expect that currently announced tariffs will positively impact net sales by approximately 1 [percent] based on vendor price increases to-date.”
Thomas Robertson, the CFO of footwear company Rocky Brands, said that “regardless” of whether Trump relaxed his tariffs on China, his company intended to keep its high prices.
“We certainly welcome a reduction in the Chinese tariffs, but we’ll be announcing a price increase here regardless of any changes of the Chinese tariffs over the next week or two to go into effect in June,” Robertson said, according to the Groundwork Collaborative.
In the end, it will be America that pays the price for Trump’s chaotic trade blitz. Earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank likely would have lowered its key interest rate if Trump hadn’t announced his tariff plan. Trump’s tariffs are slated to go into effect for more than 80 countries on August 1.
But at least 71 percent of consumer goods in the U.S. are already grappling with the new trade policy, according to a report published Monday by the Tax Foundation that suggested that everything from manufacturing to food imports could be squeezed by Trump’s agenda.
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