Baldwin Blasts Trump’s ‘Chaotic’ Tariffs in Milwaukee

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Center) at Diamond Disc International, 9300 W. Heather Ave. Photo taken Aug. 9, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin came to Milwaukee Wednesday, visiting with small business owners and criticizing President Donald Trump for his tariff regime.

Baldwin was joined by nearly a dozen small business owners at the headquarters of Diamond Disc International, an international wholesaler of construction tools and safety equipment. She called the president’s tariff’s “chaotic” and “scatter shot.” She said the U.S. is in a global trade war and U.S. consumers and businesses are paying the price.

Last week, the president signed a new executive order imposing new tariffs on 67 countries across the world. Since the early 1960s, a series of laws have given the president greater latitude to set tariffs, an authority that’s constitutionally delegated to Congress. With the Republican-controlled Congress declining to assert itself, the nation’s global trade strategy has been left solely to the White House and, increasingly, the president’s political whims.

“It’s on again, off again,” Baldwin said, later noting that Trump has imposed high tariffs on countries like China, only to later roll them back. “It was the promise that there would be 90 trade deals in 90 days, and we certainly didn’t see anywhere close to that many trade deals in that many days.”

The stop at Diamond Disc was the first on Baldwin’s statewide “Fighting for Working Families Tour,” which also brings her to Brown, Door, Lincoln, Sawyer, and Ashland counties.

The best estimates about the annual impact the tariffs will have on the average household suggest it will raise their cost of living by approximately $2,000, Baldwin said. The figure is backed up by The Yale Budget Lab and the National Taxpayer’s Union, which have both calculated the cost of tariffs to an average household at approximately $2,400 annually.

Though, Trump’s tariff regime is anything but predictable and his tariff rates regularly yo-yo. The instability this creates was a common theme local business leaders shared with Baldwin.

Diamond Disc International, which hosted the roundtable, supplies equipment for some of the largest utility companies and utility contractors in the region, said company president Ugo Nwagbaraocha. These companies maintain the infrastructure that supplies communities with energy.

The price to import a shipping container used to predictably be around $5,000 for the firm, Nwagbaraocha said. The price now fluctuates greatly, by up to $30,000 or $50,000, he said, “depending upon the week or the month, or depending upon, I guess, you know, the presidential administration’s disposition at the time.”

The White House tariff strategy is creating tremendous uncertainty for businesses like Diamond Disc. Nwagbaraocha said he likes the idea of bringing some manufacturing back to the U.S., but he questioned whether such investments were possible in such an unpredictable environment.

The volatile tariff policy is making it nearly impossible for some industries to conduct business as usual. Brother’s Infrastructure Group has a contract to provide 3,000 linear-feet of fencing on the I-41 re-construction. CEO Tyrone Johnson said his firm is taking out loans to cover the 35% cost increase for materials on the job.

The firm bid on the project in 2024. Construction firms are typically bidding on projects at least six months out, he said, and are expected to still be the lowest bidder by the time construction begins.

“So it’s almost like playing the lottery, because we have so much uncertainty,” he said.

The reverberations of Trump’s trade war are being felt beyond corporate board rooms. They extend directly to people’s basic needs, like food.

In 2022, Maurice Wince opened Sherman Park Grocery at 4315 W. Fond du Lac Ave. in the center of an area considered one of Milwaukee’s food deserts. When the grocery opened, Wince said he heard firsthand from nearby residents that they were able to access fresh produce, close to their home, for the first time in years.

Grocery stores like his have razor-thin margins and when tariffs raise the cost of the goods, his customers pay more at the register. For low-income families, the purchasing power of their dollar is diminished and they are unable to purchase as much food, on the same budget, as they did before, he said. This comes at a time when the federal government recently enacted what’s been called the largest cut to federal food assistance in the history of the program.

“The need goes nowhere,” Wince said. “The need is still there.”

Baldwin’s approach on Wednesday was to give these business owners a platform to tell these stories. That’s “how we fight back” against the current administration’s trade policy, she said. The senator said she isn’t “anti-tariff” but favors selective use: they should be used “very surgically for trade-cheats,” she said.

“This is not the way to set trade policy,” Baldwin declared. “This is not the way to set tariff policies, and it’s hurting Wisconsinites.”