It’s not just the stock market.

In the few weeks since President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs, a series of indicators from across the economy suggest anxiety — or even outright panic — is in the economic driver’s seat.

Consumer confidence is at a near-record low. People are panic-buying products that are likely to see major price hikes soon, from cars to consumer electronics. Businesses are also already predicting a slowdown in production, suggesting that Trump’s tariffs are actually working against his stated — and likely impossible — goal of reviving American manufacturing.

This has a real impact on the health of the US economy. Confident consumers spend and support confident businesses, which fuel economic growth and hire workers. Trump can’t achieve his goals of onshoring manufacturing and ushering in a golden era of American prosperity when both consumers and businesses are spooked.

It might be too early to tell whether Trump’s tariffs will lead to a recession, but it’s clear that they are already shifting economic activity in the US. Here’s what the data show.

Consumers are shopping scared

The leading metric of consumer confidence is the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index, which measures how favorable Americans feel about the economy based on their responses to a series of survey........

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