"The beginning of making America rich again."

That's how US President Donald Trump described his decision to levy 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States.

Trump signed proclamations at the White House on Monday that will take effect in March and will apply without exception to steel and aluminum arriving from all countries.

The measures are the latest in a long line of tariff threats made by the president since he returned to office last month.

Many economists, however, disagree that Trump's tariffs mark the beginning of a new "Golden Age" for the United States and reject his assertion, while signing the proclamations, that foreign exporters — not ordinary Americans — would bear the brunt of the tariffs.

"The literature on this is abundantly clear," Abigail Hall Blanco, an associate professor of economics at the University of Tampa in Florida, told DW. "Tariffs mean major losses, for all parties involved."

While the new levies are intended to bolster domestic steel and aluminum producers, experts believe US industries that rely heavily on metals, such as automotive and construction, will face increased production costs.

Those costs will almost certainly be passed on to US consumers, reigniting inflation at a time when policymakers are hell-bent on pushing it lower.

Meredith Crowley, a professor of economics at the University of Cambridge in the UK, thinks low-income Americans, who in large measure voted for Trump, will experience "the most harm from all of these tariffs."

"If you're someone who's just struggling to pay for the not-very-good car you have right now, it's a much heavier burden. If the price of an auto goes up by $1,000, your........

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