EXCLUSIVE — President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs promise is facing challenges from a new analysis that argues the sweeping trade policy failed to revive manufacturing and instead slowed job creation in the U.S.The report, obtained first by Fox News Digital, lands months after Trump's signature economic policies was handed a blow when the Supreme Court struck down sweeping tariffs, and businesses are now seeking billions of dollars in tariff refunds.Trump's April 2025 global tariff rollout marked the largest U.S.tariff hike in decades, delivering on a signature economic promise that higher duties would spark a manufacturing renaissance, bring factory jobs back to the United States and reduce Americans' reliance on foreign goods.Researchers at the Advancing American Freedom Foundation argue those goals never materialized, and estimate in their report that the tariffs resulted in up to 1 million fewer jobs nationwide than would have been expected under pre-tariff trends.TRUMP SAYS US WOULD BE 'DESTROYED' WITHOUT TARIFF REVENUEPresident Donald Trump speaks during a "Make America Wealthy Again" trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Manufacturing — the industry the tariffs were intended to help — fared particularly poorly, according to the damning report.Researchers estimate the sector lost roughly 75,000 positions during the policy's first year, or about 6,250 jobs per month."We can say with an over 90% confidence level that manufacturing lost jobs because of the tariffs," Richard Stern, vice president of the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital.Stern argued the tariffs backfired because many American manufacturers rely on imported components and equipment."Most of the Americans that are importing are American businesses, especially American manufacturers and producers," he said.
"So the tariffs really ended up being a tax ...