From $360K to Survival Mode: How Trump’s Tariffs Are Crushing American Dreams

Small businesses across America are bracing for impact as Trump’s brutal 145% tariffs on Chinese imports start to hit and the first victims are already living the nightmare.

In Denver, Christina and Ian Lacey, founders of Retuned Jewelry, are watching their dream unravel.

They built something extraordinary: stunning handmade jewelry crafted from discarded guitar strings, a creative twist that turned passion into profit, earning over $360,000 a year.

Today, it feels like it could all be ripped away.

For Christina, it’s personal.

“We’ve worked 24/7 to keep this alive,” she said, her voice breaking. “We sacrificed so much — birthdays, vacations, even our health sometimes, just to make this dream work.”

Now, they’re not just risking a business. They’re fighting to save their livelihood, their identity, and everything they’ve built from scratch.

The tariffs hit at the worst possible time. Nearly everything Christina needs — beads, clasps, hooks — is sourced from China.
Without them, there’s no product to sell. No way to stay afloat.

“We’ve looked everywhere,” Ian said. “It simply doesn’t exist here.”

They tried. Christina spent weeks calling U.S. factories, scrolling supplier lists at 2 a.m., even considering designing entirely new pieces with different materials.
Nothing worked.

“You can’t redesign your entire brand overnight,” Christina explained. “We built our reputation on a certain style — our customers love it. If we change too much, we lose them anyway.”

Facing massive cost increases even before the tariffs officially take hold, Christina has been forced to raise prices — a move she knows could drive loyal customers away.

“I’m scared,” she said. “We’ve already seen sales dip just from the news coverage. What happens when it actually hits?”

The emotional toll is brutal.

Where once Christina dreamed of expanding the business, hiring more local artists, and creating a space for musicians to collaborate, now she’s slashing budgets, cancelling plans, and wondering if next month’s rent will be paid.

“We built something real,” she said. “And now it feels like the ground is crumbling beneath us — and there’s nothing we can do.”

And they’re not alone.

At The Mitchell Group in Illinois, a family-run textile company, similar despair is setting in.

Their specialized materials — also reliant on Chinese supply chains — are now costing thousands more just to stock.

“The tariffs are a cash-flow killer,” said COO Ann Brunett. “We’re bleeding money to hold onto goods that might sit unsold for months.”

Even alternatives like Vietnam and India couldn’t help.

“You can’t patch together a supply chain from three different countries,” said Bill Fisch, the president. “It just doesn’t work.”

Meanwhile, Trump keeps insisting tariffs will “bring jobs back to America.”

But experts call that a fantasy.

“You can’t just slap on a tariff and magically rebuild an industry overnight,” said John Arensmeyer of the Small Business Majority.

The grim reality?

America’s manufacturing base has been decimated for decades and even if factories returned, there’s nobody willing to work in them anymore.

“The textile business for our kind of product?” Fisch said. “It’s gone here. Completely gone.”