Trump's policies raised costs for all but the top 1%, report says

The Trump administration's economic policies have driven up taxes and costs for all but the wealthiest 1% of Americans, according to a new analysis from an economic think tank.

A typical American consumer, someone in the middle 20% by income, will pay about $1,700 more in taxes and other costs in 2026 because of Trump's policies, the report found. The poorest 20% will pay about $750 more.

Only the top 1% of earners will pay less: $12,560 less, according to the report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a left-leaning think tank.

The Oct. 8 release focuses on three major policy changes under the second Trump administration: new tax provisions enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits from the COVID-19 era, and price increases triggered by tariffs, the Iran war and immigration actions.

Those added costs may help explain why consumer confidence stands near an all-time low , and why household debt is rising , at a time when the U.S. economy appears strong on other measures.

"No matter how much the Trump administration touts the tax cuts that they've enacted, they can't get around the fact that they've caused increased costs that more than offset those tax cuts by a lot for most people, except for the rich," said Steve Wamhoff , federal tax policy director at ITEP.

Did Trump's economic policies raise costs for Americans?

The report comes from a group that is generally critical of the Trump administration and its economic policies.

In response, the Trump administration offered a very different assessment of the president's impact on the U.S. economy.

" President Trump 's aggressive, pro-growth economic agenda has stopped [former President Joe] Biden's inflation crisis, driven economic growth, and created private-sector jobs, and will continue to deliver economic wins over the next two years," said White House spokesman Matthew Middleton.

Middleton added, "Democrats pretend to care about 'affordability' while supporting socialist candidates whose policies would cost every American household $355,000 over 10 years while adding $49 trillion to the deficit."

A White House report on the Trump tax cuts, released in June, found that they "delivered the largest share of tax relief directly to millions of low- and middle- income Americans."

Other policy experts questioned some findings in the ITEP report. A lot depends on how you score Trump's policy moves.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act extended tax cuts Congress approved during the first Trump administration under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, along with some new cuts.