On Anniversary of Trump’s Calamitous “Liberation Day” Brown Blasts Price Increases and Job Loss, Calls for Restoration of MAGNET Funding

Cleveland, OH – On the anniversary of President Trump’s disastrous “Liberation Day” tariffs on nearly every country in the world, Congresswoman Shontel Brown (OH-11) calls for Trump to abandon his chaotic cost increases for good and fully restore funding cut by his White House to support manufacturing in Northeast Ohio.  

On April 2, 2025, President Trump announced massive tariffs with a stated goal of boosting American manufacturing. Trump’s damaging tariffs were also economically incoherent, including a levy for the Heard and McDonald Islands, an uninhabited island chain near Antarctica. Working families have paid the price. 

In December, the Trump Administration abruptly froze all federal funding for Ohio’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), including MAGNET in Cleveland, which supports over 14,000 local manufacturers across Ohio. Congresswoman Brown demanded answers from the Department of Commerce, but did not receive a reply. 

“One year since Trump’s calamitous Liberation Day prices are higher, jobs have been lost, and bankruptcies are on the rise. Tariffs are taxes and consumers and businesses are paying more – all because of Trump’s incoherent economic policies. Instead of helping American manufacturers and farmers, Trump has stabbed them in the back with higher costs and a loss of markets. Nowhere has that betrayal been more painful than in Ohio, where Trump has shut off access to global markets and frozen funding that supports local manufacturing. After months of stonewalling, it is time for the Trump Administration to restore federal manufacturing funding to Ohio, including for MAGNET in Cleveland. No more games, no more rhetoric, no more excuses,” said Congresswoman Shontel Brown. 

Trump’s Liberation Day Failure by the Numbers

• In 2025, the United States lost 83,000 manufacturing jobs.
• Trump’s tariffs cost the average American household $1700 in 2025, a figure that will grow to over $2,500 if Trump carries through on his threat to keep tariffs unchanged for all of 2026.
• Bankruptcies increased by 11% in 2025, reaching their highest level since 2019.
• In 2025, the United States lost 15,000 farms nationwide and farm bankruptcies increased by 46 percent. Ohio farmers endured a brutal 76% drop in sales to China, the world’s largest market.
• One year after Liberation Day, according to official CPI data, the cost of electricity has increased 6%, the cost of medical care has increased 4%, the cost of food has increased 3%, and the cost of clothing has increased 2%.
• Gas prices have skyrocketed to $4.08 per gallon nationwide, with diesel hitting $5.50 according to AAA. In the year since Liberation Day, gas prices have increased 26%.   

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