Interest in tariffs is down 89% as Trump launches another global trade war — why is no one worried this time?

Data from Bloomberg also suggests media outlets aren’t talking about tariffs this time around. Following Liberation Day, the number of stories with keywords like “tariff” or “trade war” was 75,650 per day according to Bloomberg News Trends. That number shrank to 8,152 this July.

Harry Moser, founder and president of the nonprofit Reshoring Initiative, believes there are a few reasons for this muted media coverage. In an email response to Moneywise, Moser wrote, “I think the media is accepting that tariffs in one form or another will be a permanent factor to bring back jobs and to generate federal revenue.”

The Federal Bank of Richmond reported that revenues from customs duties, taxes and fees reached a total of $287 billion in 2025. That’s up 192% compared to 2024.

Moser added that although these “tariffs are obviously a stretch,” they “may survive legal challenges,” unlike former tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court.

​Drew DeLong, Head of Corporate Statecraft in Kearney Foresight, an internal think tank at global management consulting firm Kearney, pointed to the legal change away from President Trump’s prior use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in these latest tariffs.

As DeLong wrote to Moneywise, “The shift from IEEPA to Section 122 to Section 301 has desensitized both Washington and the Street to most tariff news. Even with more Section 301s, Section 232s and USMCA still in play, nothing comes close to Liberation Day, which pushed the U.S. average effective tariff rate to roughly seven to nine times its prior level.”

Are tariffs bringing businesses back?

Although higher tariffs have become a great revenue generator, that wasn’t their only goal. The White House repeatedly said it wants to “bring manufacturing back to America,” and tariffs are a part of that strategy.

That begs the question: Are tariffs truly helping with reshoring?

Although Harry Moser views the USD’s reserve status and overvaluation as “the primary root cause of the U.S. cost disadvantage” in global trade, he also says the tariffs “are better than nothing and are working, but more slowly than President Trump acknowledged.”

Even with the “huge uncertainty caused by the tariff program,” Moser pointed to positive data in the Reshoring Initiative’s research.

For instance, the 2026 Reshoring Survey — set to be released in the second week of August — showed Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that reshored since January 2025 almost equally cited geopolitical risk (61%) and tariffs (67%).

Kearney noted “glimmers of hope” that reshoring might be improving in its 2026 Reshoring Index. However, study authors didn’t make a 1:1 correlation with tariffs.

Overall, U.S. manufacturing imports climbed by 4.6% between 2024 and 2025, and Kearney’s Reshoring Index was still negative at -86, which shows the U.S. is still more reliant on overseas production than domestic manufacturing. Despite this “bad news,” that is an improvement from the -115 rating in 2024.

CEOs that are skittish on reshoring told Kearney’s researchers there are other “structural constraints,” including “labor costs, infrastructure limitations, and workforce availability,” all of which act as “persistent barriers.”

Patrick Van den Bossche — a partner in management consultant at Kearney’s Strategic Operations Practice and the lead author of The Kearney 2026 Reshoring Index — told Moneywise via email, “Whatever positive effect tariffs could have had on reshoring, they’re fully offset by the lack of policy stability. When it comes to getting companies to invest in bringing manufacturing back, clarity is more valuable than incentives.”