Coke forced to jack up soda prices because of Trump's trade war

Every day brings more bad news for American consumers and workers as companies struggle with the fallout from Trump’s needless trade war.

On Wednesday, soft drink giant Coca-Cola suddenly announced that it will raise prices on its sodas because, thanks to Trump, it now costs more for Coke to produce aluminum cans.

“Chief Executive James Quincey said the price move in North America was in response to rising costs, including higher freight rates and metal prices after the U.S. placed tariffs on Chinese imports earlier this year,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Quincey wouldn’t say exactly how much he expects prices to increase — but they will increase, and that will hurt consumers at the checkout counter.

Coke’s announcement comes the same week that Whirlpool, General Motors and Harley-Davison all warned that Trump’s reckless tariffs would likely take big chunks out of their bottom lines, which could mean layoffs.

Coke likely won’t be alone in raising its prices.

Other soda companies, as well as U.S. beer companies, may have to follow suit since Trump’s trade war is forcing all of them to pay more for aluminum.

“Tariffs on aluminum are a tax on beer,” analyst John Dunham recently pointed out. “American brewers fill and sell about 36 billion aluminum cans and bottles per year.”

Trump’s trade war is shaping up to be one of the biggest economic policy fiascos of his presidency.

The tariffs are nearly universally opposed by economists and big business alike — and the full scope of the disaster is coming into sharper focus with each passing week.

Farmers, manufactures and consumers are all preparing to take big hits as Trump chokes off overseas markets, jacks up prices on imported goods, and drives up prices.

Trump travels to Iowa on Thursday, where farmers are increasingly panicked.

“I think there is an uneasiness: ‘What if this president’s wrong? What if he’s not successful?” Kirk Leeds, CEO of the Iowa Soybean Association, told Politico. “That’s scary.”

On Tuesday, Trump was forced to announce an emergency $12 billion bailout for U.S. farmers who are getting hammered by the tariffs.

But the agriculture community is furious at Trump for giving them temporary handouts, when all they want is to earn a living and go back to the way things were.

Trump has completely upended U.S. trade policy for no good reason. And now even a can of Coke is going to cost you more.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.