By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans’ confidence in the economy slumped for the fifth straight month to the lowest level since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as anxiety over the impact of tariffs takes a heavy toll.

Related Articles

’Nowhere to turn’: Small businesses dependent on imports from China are feeling more desperate

Wall Street drifts as corporate profits pile higher along with uncertainty about Trump’s trade war

St. Paul: Sharrett’s Liquors to briefly close as longtime owners retire

Jack in the Box launches turnaround with plan to close up to 200 locations

Does a 529 plan affect financial aid?

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell 7.9 points in April to 86, its lowest reading since May 2020. Nearly one-third of consumers expect hiring to slow in the coming months, nearly matching the level reached in April 2009, when the economy was mired in the Great Recession.

The figures reflect a rapidly souring mood among Americans, most of whom expect prices to rise because of the widespread tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. About half of Americans are also worried about the potential for a recession, according to a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center.

“Rattled consumers spend less than confident consumers,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, in an email. “If confidence sags and consumers retrench, growth will go down.”

A measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market plunged 12.5 points to 54.4, the lowest level in more than 13 years. The reading is well below 80, which typically signals a recession ahead.

How this gloomy mood translates into spending, hiring, and growth will become clearer in the coming days and weeks. On Wednesday, the government will report on U.S. economic growth during the first three months of the year, and economists are expecting a sharp slowdown as Americans pulled back on spending after a strong winter holiday shopping season.

And on Friday the Labor Department will release its latest report on hiring and the unemployment rate. Overall, economists expect it should still show steady job gains, though some forecast it could report sharply reduced hiring.

The stark decline in consumer confidence also likely reflected the sharp swings in stock and bond prices that roiled financial markets earlier this month. While all age groups and most income brackets reported lower confidence, the decline was steepest among households earning more than $125,000 and among consumers 35 to 55 years old.

Though major U.S. markets rebounded over the past week, the S&P 500 is still down 6% for the year and the Dow Jones has lost 5%. The growth-heavy Nasdaq is down 10% in 2025.

The Conference Board said that mentions of tariffs in write-in responses reached an all-time high this month, with the duties on the top of consumers’ minds. Trump has imposed a tariff of 10% on nearly all imports, as well as a huge 145% tariff on most goods from China. He has imposed separate import taxes on steel, aluminum, and cars.

More Americans are also now worried that the economy could tip into a recession, with the proportion of consumers expecting a downturn in the next 12 months reaching a two-year high.

Fewer consumers said they were planning to buy a home or car in the next six months. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed last month in a lackluster start to the spring homebuying season as elevated mortgage rates and rising prices discouraged those looking.

And Americans also said they would spend less on services. The proportion of Americans planning an overseas vacation in the next six months fell to 16.4%, down from 24.1% in December. And the proportion of consumers planning to spend more on dining out plummeted by nearly the most on record in April, the Conference Board said.

By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has frozen, stalled or otherwise disrupted some $430 billion in federal funds — from disease research to Head Start for children to disaster aid — in what top Democrats say is an “unprecedented and dangerous” assault on programs used by countless Americans.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut on Tuesday released an online tracker that is compiling all the ways President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are interrupting the flow of federal funds, often going up against the law.

“Instead of investing in the American people, President Trump is ignoring our laws and ripping resources away,” said Murray and DeLauro, who are the top Democrats on the Appropriations committees in Congress.

“No American president has ever so flagrantly ignored our nation’s spending laws or so brazenly denied the American people investments they are owed,” they said.

President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The tally is far from complete or exhaustive, the lawmakers said, but a snapshot in time. It comes in a rapidly changing political and legal environment as the Trump administration faces dozens of lawsuits from state and local governments, advocacy organizations, employees and others fighting to keep programs intact.

At 100 days into Trump’s return to the presidency, the project showcases the extent to which the White House is blocking money that Congress has already approved, touching off a constitutional battle between the executive and legislative branches that has real world ramifications for the communities the lawmakers serve.

Related Articles

Numbers that matter from the first 100 days of Trump’s second term

Trump marks his first 100 days in office with a rally in Michigan, a state rocked by his tariffs

Mark Carney wins new term as Canada’s prime minister on anti-Trump platform

John M. Crisp: What I wish Rumeysa Ozturk could have learned in the US

Ross Douthat: Why is Trump struggling? His adminstration is too ‘black-pilled’

The White House and its Republican allies in Congress have said they are working to root out waste, fraud and abuse in government. The Trump administration is in court fighting to keep many of the administration’s cuts even as Musk, whose own popularity has dropped, says he will be cycling off DOGE’s day-to-day work.

And Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget intends to soon send Congress a $9 billion rescissions package, to claw back funds through cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and others.

Murray and DeLauro said they want to “shine a light on President Trump’s vast, illegal funding freeze and how it is hurting people in every zip code in America.” They said it’s time for Trump and Musk “to end this unprecedented and dangerous campaign.”

While Republicans have also stirred with concerns about Trump’s spending cuts, many are reluctant to do so publicly as they try to avoid Trump’s reactions. Instead, they tend to work behind the scenes to restore federal dollars to their home states or other constituencies that have been put at risk by Trump’s actions.

The powerful Appropriations committees in the House and the Senate, where Republicans have majority control of both chambers, draft the annual funding bills that are ultimately approved by Congress and sent to the president’s desk for his signature to become law.

Minnesota United made the addition of Julian Gressel official on Tuesday morning.

The 31-year-old right-sided player did not play for Inter Miami this season and his skills will help fill needs for the Loons. He is under contract through 2026, with a club option for 2027.

“If you were to sort of script the type of player that we need,” MNUFC coach Eric Ramsay said. He also called Gressel “a serial winner” and “a steady character.”

Gressel has played 245 matches in MLS, winning MLS Cup with Atlanta, Columbus and the Supporters Shield with Miami last seasonA year ago, he totaled nine assists and one goal in 2,340 MLS minutes. Gressel’s lack of playing time this year was a decision from new coach Javier Mascherano.

How Loons got him

This acquisition was not a intra-league trade nor the new for-cash transfer, but rather Miami waiving Gressel and the Loons claiming his rights.

MLS rules state: “If a player with a guaranteed contract is waived, any interested MLS club will have 48 hours from the notice of Waivers to claim the player by notifying the League of the intention to claim the player and the amount of the player’s Salary Budget Charge they wish to assume. The player will be awarded based on a number of factors, including but not limited to, Waiver Order and which club is willing to absorb a Salary Budget Charge that is meaningfully higher than other clubs and at least $15,000 higher than Senior Minimum Salary.”

Gressel made $1.09 million in guaranteed compensation with Miami in 2024, according to the MLS Players Association. This move will bring down his salary for MNUFC, but where it comes down between what he was earning and the senior minimum ($104,000) won’t be known until this year’s MLSPA numbers are released.

Best position?

Gressel has not played for Miami this season, but a year ago he was primarily a right wing or right midfielder as Inter won the Supporters Shield. In 2023, he finished that season at wingback as Columbus Crew won MLS Cup.

Ramsay was noncommittal on Gressel’s best spot in Minnesota, but narrowed it down to right wingback or a right-sided central midfielder, or No. 8, which would help with Hassani Dotson sidelined months with a knee injury

“I feel like the plus point for (Gressel) is that he can do both,” Ramsay said. “I think he’s a player that does take a lot of pride in his versatility, from the conversation I had with him.”

Ramsay said if the club isn’t going to fill all its senior-roster spots, then versatility within the squad is a bigger necessity. If Gressel can fill in at right wingback, Ramsay said a “knockdown effect” would be current right wingback Bongi Hlongwane might spend time at his more-natural position, forward.

“I wouldn’t say, difficulties that we have on that (right) side, but … it’s an obvious point in our squad where you’d say that we between right-sided (No. 8) and wingback, having lost Hassani,  we could do with some options and competition and depth,” Ramsay said.

Ramsay also sees Gressel providing right-footed service on set pieces, something the team doesn’t currently have in the cupboard.

Known commodity

One of the Loons best teams — the 2019 edition — was constructed, in part, from within MLS with Ozzie Alonso coming from Seattle and Ike Opara from Kansas City. The Gressel move is from that same playbook from within the league.

It’s the opposite of how the Loons tried to add diminutive right back Matus Kmet from Slovakia last summer. He never fit and is out on loan in Poland this season.

“That’s really important for us, that we we want to bring players in that you can say with certainty are going to have a level of influence on the team’s success,” Ramsay said. “… The fact that he’s not played for five or six months with any real regularity, doesn’t seem like it’ll be an issue. I think he’s a guy who will have looked after himself really well and should be able to hit the ground running.”

By MAE ANDERSON, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Major orders canceled. Containers of products left stranded overseas. No roadmap for what comes next.

The Trump administration raised tariffs on goods from China to 145% in early April. Since then, small business owners who depend on imports from China to survive have become increasingly desperate as they eye dwindling inventory and skyrocketing invoices.

President Donald Trump seemed to back down somewhat last week when he said he expected the tariffs to come down “substantially.” That helped set off a rally in the stock market. But for small businesses that operate on razor-thin margins, the back and forth is causing massive upheaval. Some say they could be just months from going out of business altogether.

The Massachusetts family-owned game company

Game makers are particularly susceptible to the tariffs since the majority of games and toys sold in the U.S. are made in China, according to The Toy Association.

WS Game Co., based in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, is a family-owned business that licenses Hasbro board games like Monopoly, Candy Land and Scrabble and creates deluxe versions of them. Its most popular line of games come in boxes that look like vintage books and sell for $40.

The company’s games were featured in Oprah’s Favorite Things list in 2024 and sold in 14,000 stores in North America, from big national chains to mom-and-pop stores, said owner Jonathan Silva, whose father founded the company in 2000.

All of WS Game’s production is done in China. The tariffs have brought the past 25 years of healthy growth to a screeching halt.

Over the past three weeks, WS Game has had three containers of finished games, worth $500,000, stranded in China. It lost orders from three of the largest U.S. retailers totaling $16 million in business. And there’s not much Silva can do about it.

“As a small business, we don’t have the runway or the capabilities to move manufacturing on a whim,” said Silva, who has 22 employees. He said the tariffs have “disrupted our business and put us on the verge of insolvency” and estimates he has about a four-month runway to stay afloat if nothing changes.

“We’re really hoping that cooler heads prevail,” he said.

Artificial flowers in Kentucky

Jeremy Rice co-owns House, a home-décor shop in Lexington, Kentucky, that specializes in artificial flower arrangements for the home. About 90% of the flowers his business uses are made in China.

This undated photo provided by Jeremy Rice shows Rice at House, a home-décor shop that specializes in artificial flower arrangements for the home. in Lexington, Ky. (Jeremy Rice via AP)

Rice uses dozens of vendors. The largest are absorbing some of the cost of the tariffs and passing on the rest. One vendor is raising prices by 20% and another 25%. But Rice is expecting smaller vendors to increase prices by much higher percentages.

House offers mid-range artificial flowers. A large hydrangea head will retail for $10 to $16, for example. China is the only place that manufacturers higher quality silk flowers. It would take a vendor years to open a factory in a different country or move production somewhere else, Rice said.

Rice ordered his holiday décor early this year. But even after stocking up ahead of the tariffs, he only has enough everyday floral inventory in to last two to three months.

“After that, I don’t know what we’re going to do,” he said.

Rice is concerned that the trade war will wipe out a bunch of mom-and-pop stores, similar to what happened in the Great Recession and the pandemic.

“There’s nowhere to turn, there’s nothing to do,” he said.

Tea in Michigan

A tea shop in a Michigan college town is also caught in the middle of the ongoing tariff fight.

“It’s basically just put a big pit in my stomach,” said Lisa McDonald, owner of TeaHaus, located in Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan. McDonald has owned TeaHaus for nearly 18 years and sells tea to customers across the U.S.

Owner Lisa McDonald packages a loose leaf tea orders at the TeaHaus Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Americans drank about 86 billion servings of tea in 2024, according to the Tea Association of the U.S.A.. Almost all of that is imported since tea isn’t grown in the U.S. at scale, due to factors ranging from climate to cost.

McDonald imports loose-leaf tea from China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and other countries. She says her customer base is “from all over the U.S. and the world.” But she worries there is a limit to what they’ll spend. Her premium teas can cost up to $33 for a 50-gram bag.

“I don’t think I can charge $75 for a 50-gram bag of tea, no matter how amazing that tea is,” she said.

McDonald understands Trump’s rationale for wanting to use tariffs to spur U.S. manufacturing but says it doesn’t apply to the tea industry.

“We can’t grow tea in the U.S. to the extent that we need. We can’t just flip the industry and ‘make tea great again’ in America. It just can’t happen,” she said.

Car accessories in Oklahoma

Jim Umlauf’s business, 4Knines, based in Oklahoma City, makes vehicle seat covers and cargo liners for dog owners and others. To do so, he needs raw materials such as fabric, coatings and components from China.

Umlauf has explored manufacturing in countries other than China since 2018, when Trump first instituted a 25% tariff on goods from China, but has run into complications. In the meantime, 4Knines absorbs the extra cost, which Umlauf says has limited its growth and squeezed its margins.

Now, the new tariffs make it nearly impossible to do business. The demand is there, but the company can’t afford to bring over more products.

“We only have a limited amount of inventory left, and without some relief, we’ll run out soon,” Umlauf said.

As a small business owner who has worked hard to develop a high-quality brand, create jobs and contribute to the community, Umlauf is frustrated. He has tried to contact the White House and other decision-makers to ask for small business support. But he’s gotten zero response.

“It’s time for policymakers to consider the full impact of trade policies not just on stock prices or global competitiveness, but on the real people running small businesses,” he said.

AP videojournalist Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this report.