Tariffs could hike up your air conditioning bill for your home and car this summer

Americans may find it costs them more to keep their homes cool this summer, and part of the blame for those rising costs could fall on President Donald Trump's economic policies.
HVAC — Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning — professionals are warning that Trump's trade war, a coolant shortage, and forecasts calling for increasingly hotter days are likely to raise the overall cost Americans spending on their air conditioning this year, according to NBC News.
According to HVAC professionals who spoke to the broadcaster, many have been eating the cost of doing business — labor, raw materials, and keeping up with regulations — as it's risen since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Like any other industry, HVAC professionals rely on supply chains to get the things they need to do their jobs, and with so many supply lines under tariff thanks to Trump's trade war, the cost of doing business is likely going to be put onto the consumer.
Scott Shelton, the owner of Charlotte Comfort Systems, told NBC News he believed that his expenses had risen by 80 percent since the pandemic.
Another HVAC professional, Aydin Mehr, said a part that typically costs $1,000 will cost $1,300 or $1,400 come September.
He said that many HVAC shops were stockpiling their parts to try to keep their prices low, but noted that even by mid-May his trove is quickly depleting.
It's no secret that the planet is warming up thanks to human-driven climate change through the burning of fossil fuels. Hotter days means more demand for air conditioning, which in turn is demand for electricity.
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association said on Thursday that U.S. residential electricity costs are expected to average around $784 this year, pushing the average to the highest its been in 12 years.
Costs are likely to go up for those who need an air conditioner fixed or installed, and costs are likely to go up for the electricity needed to run a unit, but what about costs for those are in the market an air conditioner?
Prices are likely to go up.
Last year, the U.S. imported more than $15 billion worth of air conditioners — approximately five times as much as it exported, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Approximately half of the U.S.'s spending on air conditioning went to Mexico, and just under 20 percent went to China.
According to experts, less than half of the air conditioner components the U.S. imports from Mexico are covered under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. Products covered by the agreements are shielded from Trump's tariffs, meaning HVAC professionals will still take on a noticeable financial burden this year.
On Monday, the U.S. and China agreed to pause most of their tariffs for 90 days, but many suppliers buy their products on 90-day schedules, and some had stopped their orders — hoping to avoid Trump's tariffs — well before the U.S. and China reached a deal.
It's going to take some time before product finds its way back stateside.
'In the best-case scenario, we're going to have a Covid-style type of thing where they're going to be waiting months just to get their stuff," Mehr told NBC News.
On top of rising electricity costs and the trade war, HVAC workers are also dealing with an industry-wide shortage of R-454B, a more eco-friendly coolant that became required back in January. Trump signed a bipartisan measure into law in 2020 that led to the adoption of the regulation this year.
Mehr told NBC News that he was expecting a large manufacturer to ship out the pumps using the coolant in mid-April, but "it still hasn't shipped because they didn't import the parts from China to finish them."
Appliance maker Honeywell announced a 42 percent surcharge on the coolant, citing the "cumulative effect of increased costs and raw materials" made worse by an increase in demand.
Cooling isn't just a luxury anymore; in some parts of the U.S. having an efficient way to stay cool indoors is a necessity. Families without an efficient means of cooling their living space run the risk of heat stroke and other heat-related health problems.

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Daily Mail​

24 minutes ago

• Daily Mail​

Liberals stunned to find their anti-Iran views completely align with Marjorie Taylor Greene

MAGA loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene has received a surprising backing from liberals after she publicly criticized President Donald Trump 's decision to strike Iranian nuclear sites. Greene, in a rare move, distanced herself from Trump in a heated social media post where she argued America has gone to war with the wrong enemy. 'I don't know anyone in America who has been the victim of a crime or killed by Iran, but I know many people who have been victims of crime committed by criminal illegal aliens or murdered by Cartel and Chinese fentanyl/drugs,' she wrote. 'However America has not dropped bunker busters on the Cartel's sophisticated drug tunnels, launched tomahawks on massive cartel poisonous drug operations, or gone to war against the cartels international terrorists networks.' Greene, 51, argued taxpayer funds should not be spent on foreign conflicts, but instead to fund 'American interests and issues', which she notes includes the illegal migrant crisis. 'American troops have been killed and forever torn apart physically and mentally for regime change, foreign wars, and for military industrial base profits. 'I'm sick of it,' the Georgia Republican continued. 'I can easily say I support nuclear armed Israel 's right to defend themselves and also say at the same time I don't want to fight or fund nuclear armed Israel's wars. Nor any other country for that matter.' She also insisted that although she does not support Trump's decision, she is not being disloyal, adding that 'having my own opinions is the most American thing ever'. The controversial MAGA firebrand has seen a wave of support from liberals after she took to social media to call for 'an end to the constant demand for America to go to war'. Greene, who claimed she has spent her entire life watching 'our country go to war in foreign lands for foreign causes on behalf of foreign interests', said she wants to see the US focused on domestic issues. She wants the White House to negotiate 'great trade deals' so that American businesses and manufacturing can boom. She also for low inflation, low interest rates and a solution to the crippling cost-of-living crisis that impacts every American daily. 'I want Americans to be rich and have security in their future. I want my children's generation to have a great future!' she continued. 'My kids are 22, 25, and 27. It pisses me off beyond comprehension that my children's generation can't afford to buy a house, can't afford insurance, and have little hope for their future! 'Americans are exhausted by all of this and rightfully so.' Greene's post received a outpour of support liberals shocked by her response, with Pod Save America co-host Tommy Vietor questioning how she has become a 'voice of reason on this issue'. 'How is it that Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson and Steven Bannon are... talking about the Iranian people, like they're human beings, with empathy?' Vietor said during a panel discussion on Iran with Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan and Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American author and academic. He added that 'the Democratic Party has lost the mantle of being the anti-war party', citing Israel's ongoing war in Gaza and previous conflicts, including the war in Iraq. Vietor claimed there are 'some principled Democrats speaking out' about Iran, but others who are 'sitting around thinking 'f***, what if it goes well? I don't want to look stupid. I don't want to be the guy who opposed Gulf War I'.' Hassan also highlighted how Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is 'putting out videos from the right attacking Trump for not being tougher on Iran.' Support for Greene extended beyond political commentators and analysts, with social media users also hailing her 'new arc'. 'Hell has frozen over and pigs have sprouted wings - I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually agreeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene,' one Bluesky user wrote. 'Could not agree more with this clear-eyed statement of opposition from Democratic congressperson...*checks notes*...Marjorie Taylor Greene,' added another. 'I didn't think I'd see the day when I would agree with that cavewoman, yet here we are,' another echoed. 'I'm loving your new arc. Keep it up,' one X user wrote, as another echoed: 'Whoa.. I totally didn't expect this from you. True colors...' One even questioned: 'Is Marjorie Taylor Greene drunk posting?' Greene's post received a outpour of support liberals shocked by her seemingly left-leaning response to Trump's strikes on Iran But some of her newfound supporters said she 'lost me' after reiterating her loyalty to Trump and the Republican party. 'Contrary to what brainwashed Democrat boomers say, Trump is not a king, MAGA is not a cult, and President Trump has surrounded himself with people who once disagreed with him and even ran against him for President,' Greene wrote. She than slammed her counterparts in Washington: 'Also the same Democrats in Congress that are all of sudden clutching their pearls about Trump bombing Iran fully supported and voted to fund Dementia ridden Biden's proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and stood by Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. 'Hypocrites is all they are and they are just desperately trying to find solid ground to oppose Trump on because so far they've failed at grasping anything yet.' One Bluesky user said: 'MTG offers five sentences here. I agree with four of them. We are in a bad place when I'm hoping that her MAGA constituents listen to her.' 'So Marjorie Taylor Greene disagrees with Trump. Well, too bad. You voted for this,' another wrote. 'And yes MAGA is a cult She can disagree all she wants, but she will still vote party line with Trump on everything. Including a declaration of war.' 'How is it that Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene... talking about the Iranian people, like they're human beings, with empathy?' Pod Save America co-host @TVietor08 tells @mehdirhasan that 'the Democratic Party has lost the mantle of being the anti-war party.' — Zeteo (@zeteo_news) June 21, 2025 But some of her newfound supporters said she 'lost me' after reiterating her loyalty to Trump and his MAGA movement Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Sunday called on Congress to rein in Trump's use of military force in Iran and prevent US involvement in a deepening Middle East conflict. With Republican leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives strongly backing the US attacks on key Iranian nuclear sites, it seemed unlikely any resolution that asserts the power of Congress to declare war and restricts Trump's actions could pass both chambers. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said he expects to force the Senate to vote this week on his measure requiring Trump to terminate hostilities against Iran unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war from Congress. Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California said they want a vote on similar legislation they introduced in the House. 'This is the US jumping into a war of choice at Donald Trump's urging, without any compelling national security interest for the United States to act in this way, particularly without a debate and vote in Congress,' Kaine told CBS' Face the Nation. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune were both notified of the US military action ahead of time, according to sources familiar with the matter. Members of Congress are expected to be briefed on Tuesday. The attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities on Saturday divided Trump's MAGA movement, with some leaders rallying behind the president and others calling for an end to hostilities after so-called US 'forever wars' in Iraq and Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks. 'I represent part of the coalition that elected President Trump. We were tired of endless wars,' Massie told CBS. 'We were promised that we would put our veterans, our immigration policies and our infrastructure first.' Satellite image shows a close up view of destroyed buildings at Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center, after it was hit by US airstrikes in Isfahan, Iran Massie and Kaine each said there was no urgency requiring Trump to act unilaterally. 'There was no imminent threat to the United States,' Massie said. 'We haven't been briefed.' Intelligence reports and analysts have reached different conclusions on how close Iran was to building a nuclear bomb. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Friday that the US had intelligence that should Iran decide to do so, it could build a nuclear weapon in weeks or months. US officials say they do not believe Iran had decided to make a bomb. Iran claims its nuclear ambitions are peaceful and focused on energy production and medical research. But its program, which began in the late 1950s with US support, has fallen under suspicion in recent years, with Tehran ramping up enrichment to 60 percent, just below the weapons-grade of 90 percent, and restricting the access of international inspectors to its sites. Other Trump allies have pushed back on claims that his actions against Iran violated the Constitution and a federal law that restricts unilateral action by a president to conditions involving an attack on the US. 'He had all the authority he needs under the Constitution. They are wrong,' said Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally who has long been a leading voice on foreign policy matters in Congress. 'If you don't like what the president does in terms of war, you can cut off the funding,' the South Carolina Republican told NBC's Meet the Press program. The attacks on Iran generally drew accolades from Republican lawmakers who declared that the operation set back Iran's ability to obtain a nuclear weapon. 'The President made the right call, and did what he needed to do,' Johnson said in a post on X late Saturday. 'The Commander-in-Chief evaluated that the imminent danger outweighed the time it would take for Congress to act.' The Constitution divides war powers in the federal government by making the president the commander-in-chief of the armed forces but leaving sole authority to declare war to Congress. The balance has shifted, with Congress relinquishing the use of military power to presidents of both parties in recent years. But Democrats said it was too early to tell whether the mission had succeeded, warning that Iran could have moved its nuclear material to other sites far from US targets. 'The tragedy in this country is that we keep entering these overseas wars. We triumphantly declare the mission is accomplished the day after, and then we're left with Americans bearing the consequences for decades,' Khanna told CBS.

The Guardian

30 minutes ago

• The Guardian

Militarized LA: troops here to stay as Trump doubles down on deployments

Shortly before last November's presidential election, before anyone could envision him defying his 'America first' political base and launching a bombing raid on Iran, Donald Trump offered a preview of how and why he would want to deploy the military on US soil. It was, the president said, to deal with 'the enemy within'. 'We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics,' he said in a Fox News interview that prompted widespread condemnation at the time. 'I think it should be very easily handled by… National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can't let that happen.' Trump did not specify what it was he didn't want to let happen – only that while he promised to put an end to America's 'forever wars' overseas, he regarded domestic political adversaries, perhaps like the ones who have been protesting in massive numbers in Los Angeles and across the US this month, as a national security threat worthy of a military response. When thousands of protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles earlier this month to protest his administration's heavy-handed immigration sweeps targeting workers in factories and car washes, he wasted little time making good on what he'd promised. The reality of Trump sending thousands of national guard troops and US marines into LA earlier this month has not matched his rhetoric – yet the shock of it may have been dulled by the headlines coming out of the Middle East. The troops have largely kept a low profile, their duties restricted to guarding federal buildings and, at least according to the administration, accompanying immigration enforcement agents and other federal officials as they go about their business. Still, as the dust settles on two weeks of impassioned street protests and occasional vandalism and violence in downtown Los Angeles, the deployment continues to unnerve California's political leaders, national Democratic party figures worried about who might be next, as well as many ordinary citizens and influential figures within the military itself. 'The US military exists to defend the nation from foreign threats, not to police American streets or intervene in political disputes at home,' a group of retired four-star generals and admirals and high-profile former Pentagon officials said in a statement, signalling just how far Trump has strayed from precedent. The group, including a former secretary of the army, a former secretary of the navy, and Michael Hayden, a retired air force general who led the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency under presidents of both parties, are part of a lawsuit seeking to reverse the deployment, which they say 'puts both service members and civilians at risk of harm and violates longstanding constitutional limits on government power'. Some observers have gone further, seeing a direct link between Trump's willingness to send troops into American city streets and his decision to involve the United States in the growing conflict between Israel and Iran. 'That kind of authoritarian aggression [rarely] stays inside the country's borders,' Julia Ioffe, a national security expert and founding editor of Puck News, said of the California deployment on 11 June. 'Didn't think I'd be right so soon,' she wrote on Friday, as Trump's war plans for Iran were ramping up. The Trump administration has vowed to keep the troops in place for at least 60 days, to ensure – as Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, told a House defense appropriations subcommittee – 'that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we're not going anywhere'. The threat of a more muscular military confrontation with 'the enemy within' has not gone away, either, though one of the questions remaining is whether the military or the many agencies under the control of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – immigration enforcement, border patrol, FBI – are more likely to take the lead. Two days before the No Kings rallies, Kristi Noem, the DHS secretary, was in Los Angeles and said the federal government's goal was not just to maintain order on the streets but 'to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country'. Seconds after delivering these lines at a news conference, FBI agents under Noem's authority manhandled and handcuffed Alex Padilla, a California senator who interrupted her to ask a question. Tom Homan, Trump's 'border czar', has threatened to arrest the governor, Gavin Newsom, and LA's mayor, Karen Bass, if they stand in the way of the immigration sweeps. At least two elected officials, New Jersey congresswoman LaMonica McIver and New York City comptroller Brad Lander, have indeed been arrested for alleged interference in Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. The military has so far stayed out of these headline-grabbing events, their role largely eclipsed by continuing immigration raids conducted by masked federal agents refusing to disclose their names or budget numbers, but experts and constitutional scholars say their very presence risks destabilizing what is already a volatile and politically charged situation. 'The risk of escalation, or of someone making a mistake, is always present and in these situations actually quite high,' said Chris Mirasola, a national security expert at the University of Houston Law Center. 'Just the deployment itself is escalatory.' In deciding to take charge of the California national guard, over Newsom's objections, Trump stopped short of invoking the Insurrection Act used by past presidents to help quell civil unrest, most recently during the 1992 LA riots when marines rode alongside southern California police patrols in burning neighborhoods. Rather, he invoked a rarely used power to mobilize the military to 'temporarily protect' federal property and personnel. Lyndon Johnson used the same protection power to guarantee the safety of civil rights demonstrators in Alabama in 1965, in defiance of the state's segregationist governor, George Wallace, and Richard Nixon used it in an ill-fated attempt to get the national guard to deliver the mail during a postal strike in 1970. But scholars said they were not aware of it being used any time since. Mirasola said he was a little perplexed, given the vehemence of Trump's rhetoric about 'violent, insurrectionist mobs', that the president opted for this softer approach. 'Maybe he just wanted the theatrics of getting the military on the streets,' Mirasola said. 'This is a way of doing that while still preserving some space to continue to escalate.' It was also possible, he suggested, that Trump could not talk his military commanders into taking a more aggressive approach. 'The military establishment is extremely allergic to the Insurrection Act,' he said. 'It's one of the few things bred into every single officer.' According to veterans and advocacy groups for service members being deployed to Los Angeles, the military also prides itself on being entirely apolitical and has no appetite to be drawn into a political conflict involving Trump or anyone else. Perhaps for this reason, the national guard and the marines have been barely visible in Los Angeles. At the first big downtown protest, on 8 June, the Los Angeles police moved protesters away from the national guard's staging area at a federal courthouse complex and parked their patrol cruisers in such a way that the guardsmen could not come out and intervene. Six days later, in the final stages of the No Kings protest, a hard core of protesters briefly faced off against a line of marines stationed on the front steps of the downtown federal building. 'Leave LA!' the crowd chanted, prompting the marines to deploy riot shields and push the protesters away from the building. The Los Angeles police quickly issued a dispersal order, sent in officers on horseback, and fired volleys of teargas to send most of the crowd scattering. Otherwise, the only reported incident has involved a military veteran who inadvertently crossed a line of police tape outside a federal building in west Los Angeles. One of the marines on guard wrestled him to the ground and cuffed him, but he was released shortly after and told reporters he was treated 'very fairly'. California has sued the Trump administration over the military deployment and seemed to score an early win in court last week when a district judge said the president had exceeded his authority and needed to return control of the state national guard immediately. An appeals panel has since reversed that ruling, however. Part of California's problem in arguing its case is that the national guard has been pressed into non-traditional activities with increasing frequency in recent years, undermining the notion of a strict separation between military and civilian activities. Several states, under both Republican and Democratic leadership, have drafted the guard into border patrol duties despite severe morale issues among the troops and opposition from the military brass. New Mexico has asked its national guard to work as substitute teachers in understaffed schools. Florida has had them filling in as prison guards, and New York has seconded its guard to police the New York City subway. Supporters of California's lawsuit argue that none of these scenarios are appropriate. And deploying the national guard for non-military purposes is even more inappropriate, they say, when it happens for an overtly partisan purpose over the objections of the state governor. 'The military shouldn't be in the business of domestic law enforcement. That's not what they're trained to do,' said Beau Tremitiere, a lawyer with Protect Democracy, an advocacy group supporting the suit. 'If Americans weren't aware of the risks posed by politicized domestic deployments by the military before the events in Los Angeles, they certainly are now. Healthy and respectful civil-military relations are yet another bulwark of US democracy that the president is trying to erode. We're all on notice.'

The Independent

37 minutes ago

• The Independent

The ‘inappropriate' post over Iran that led the LA County Sheriff's Department to apologize

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) apologized for an "offensive and inappropriate" social media post regarding recent U.S. strikes in Iran. The initial post, published hours after U.S. bombings, referenced "victims and families impacted" despite no reported fatalities. The LASD faced significant public backlash, with social media users criticizing the statement as a "slap in the face" to the U.S. military. The department first edited the post, then issued a formal apology, stating the original message was "unacceptable, made in error, and does not reflect the views of Sheriff Robert G. Luna or the Department." The LASD is conducting an internal review into the post's creation and publication, and is reviewing its social media oversight protocols.