President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs have driven up the price of artificial Christmas trees this holiday season, an executive has warned shoppers.
Mac Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill, which sells artificial Christmas trees and other festive decorations, told Politico’s West Wing Playbook that he has been forced to raise prices by about 20 percent.
Tens of millions of Americans, already struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, inflation, and high food prices, are now facing the prospect of having to spend even more because of Trump’s tariffs on imports.
A LendingTree study warned that the president’s tariffs mean the average U.S. consumer will need to spend $132 more on gifts this year than in 2024.
Harman said the cost he has had to pass on to consumers would have been even higher if he had not purchased most of this year’s inventory before Trump re-entered office.
Harman, whose company sponsors the National Christmas Tree, which will be placed on the White House lawn, said he was in talks with the White House to try to reduce tariffs and lower the cost of artificial Christmas trees. He argued that pre-lit artificial trees are difficult to produce in the U.S. and are not as vital to the domestic economy as technology or medicine.
“We are optimistic that the president will save Christmas,” Harman said.
Mark Mathews, chief economist and executive director of research at the National Retail Federation, said there is “definitely some cause for concern” about pricing this holiday season.
“Businesses have been eating the majority of tariffs up until this point,” he told West Wing Playbook. “We also know that that’s unsustainable, and we’re going to have to see more transmission of increased prices onto the consumer.”
White House spokesperson Kush Desai dismissed the Christmas costs concerns as “endless doomsday fantasizing by the Fake News and Democrats.”
“Hard data of robust consumer spending and retail sales have been clear. Real wages are rising under President Trump, and Americans’ hard-earned money is going further than it did under [former President] Joe Biden,” he said.
One person who also does not seem too bothered about issues surrounding Christmas trees is Melania Trump.
On Monday, the first lady spent less than three minutes welcoming the arrival of the White House Christmas tree in front of the press before leaving the event.
Trump—who has repeatedly brushed aside Americans’ concerns about their financial struggles—has also tried to suggest that Thanksgiving dinner would be cheaper this year while using distorted math.
The president’s claim that a Walmart Thanksgiving package is 25 percent cheaper than last year relies on the fact that it contains fewer products and more generic brands.
The post Trump Is Even Making Fake Christmas Trees More Expensive appeared first on The Daily Beast.
