The Taxing Presidency of Donald Trump

By David Iannelli

Americans hate taxes. That’s not opinion—it’s muscle memory. Our first national identity was forged in resistance to one. King George taxed our tea, and we dumped it in the harbor. The phrase tax-and-spend liberal stuck for decades because it hit a nerve. The mere mention of raising taxes can sink a political campaign—as Walter Mondale learned the hard way in 1984 when he acknowledged he would raise taxes and got clobbered at the ballot box.

That’s why it’s notable that a majority of Americans now oppose Donald Trump’s tariffs. These weren’t advertised as taxes, but Americans quickly came to learn they function as such, thanks to economists, news outlets such, Democratic messaging and the bond market’s Newtonian reaction to Liberation Day. The takeaway was clear: Americans may not follow trade policy, but they understand a tax.

It’s time Democrats apply the same principle to the rest of Trump’s agenda. Because whether we’re talking about immigration, healthcare or public infrastructure, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” is riddled with hidden taxes—on food, on labor, on healthcare and on the daily costs of living for such things as energy. Republicans have given Democrats the perfect pitch to hit. It’s time for Democrats to swing.

Start with mass deportation. Beyond the cruelty of ICE raids and family separations—which rightly provoke moral outrage—there’s a cost structure most Americans haven’t connected yet: deportations amount to a tax on everyday consumption. The produce you buy at the grocery store? Its price will go up when crops rot in the field because there’s no one to harvest them. That’s not theory—it’s happened in state after state when immigration crackdowns led to labor shortages. The meat aisle will feel it too, as packing plants struggle to staff up. Even your retirement isn’t spared: undocumented workers pay into Medicare and Social Security but never collect. Deport them, and you cut off a revenue stream helping to fund these programs.

Democrats have focused on the injustice. Republicans shrug. But if Democrats reframed this as an across-the-board price hike on working families—a consumption tax levied by ICE—they might start to turn heads in swing districts. Americans may tune out human rights debates. They notice when their grocery bills go up.

Then there’s energy. Energy analysts estimate that the One Big Beautiful Bill will increase average household energy bills nationwide by $78-to-$192. Fewer electric vehicles on the road due to policy changes will increase demand for and thus the price of gasoline.

Moving on to Medicaid, Republicans want to cut it under the banner of fiscal responsibility. But the costs don’t disappear—they metastasize. When low-income families lose coverage, they don’t stop getting sick. They show up in emergency rooms where treatment is more expensive, less efficient, and ultimately absorbed by the rest of the system. Hospitals raise fees. Insurers pass on costs. States stretch local budgets to plug gaps. Every insured American ends up footing the bill. That’s not austerity—it’s a tax in disguise.

Worse, cuts to Medicaid mean higher premiums, especially in rural and low-income areas where hospitals operate on razor-thin margins. Closures follow. And with fewer providers comes less competition, higher prices, and longer travel times for care. For people on employer plans or ACA exchanges, the ripple effects mean you’re paying more for less. Again: tax.

Democrats often default to the moral case—rightly so. But when the issue is framed as healthcare affordability, they can win across a broader swath of the electorate. Because while voters on the left may care about coverage, voters in the center and center-right care more about cost. And if Republicans are raising costs? That’s a tax.

Messaging works best when it’s simple and repeated. Tariffs? Tax. Deportation? Tax. Medicaid cuts? Tax. Democrats don’t need to invent a new narrative. They just need to use the one that’s been working for decades.

In 1984, Mondale admitted he’d raise taxes and got destroyed for it. Trump won’t ever be that honest, but he and the Republicans actually have raised taxes on American consumers. It’s time for Democrats to call a tax, a tax.