A series of new economic analyses released Wednesday, several conducted by the federal government using official data sources, point to slowing economic growth and increased consumer prices brought on by President Donald Trumps trade war.

Despite such indicators, however, the White House has shown no sign of backing down on Trumps trade agenda, moving forward with plans to double the tariff rate on imports of foreign steel and aluminum and pushing ahead on bilateral trade negotiations with countries around the world.

In a statement to Scripps News, White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai dismissed concerns about poor economic indicators, arguing Trump administration policies ushered in historic job, wage, investment, and economic growth in his first term, and theyre laying the groundwork the repeat the success in his second term.

Taken together, however, the new data contradict months of White House messaging suggesting foreign producers and not American consumers would bear the brunt of tariff costs, and raise fears of an economic downturn brought on by global trade imbalances.

Over the summer, I think you're only going to continue to see these soft data numbers turn into hard data, and only going to see some more slowing in the economy, said Alex Jacquez, who worked on economic policy in the Obama and Biden administrations and now directs policy and advocacy work for the progressive Groundwork Collaborative think tank.

The president began the day on Wednesday, reiterating his call for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates, highlighting a new report from payroll processing firm ADP that showed U.S. employers added just 37,000 jobs in May the lowest private-sector job growth in over two years. Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal had estimated much stronger growth of 110,000 jobs in May.

Then came new research from Liberty Street Economics, a blog run by economists with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, that found a majority of businesses in that jurisdiction passed along at least some of the added costs of tariffs onto consumers. Relyaing on data from a survey conducted during early May when the 145% tariffs on Chinese imports was still in effect the economists found a significant share of businesses also raised prices on goods not impacted by tariffs, suggesting firms were using Americans' widespread awareness of tariff-related economic uncertainty to justify price hikes across the board.

The Feds monthly Beige Book released later Wednesday pulling together data from all 12 of its districts echoed such trends.

All Districts reported elevated levels of economic and policy uncertainty, which have led to hesitancy and a cautious approach to business and household decisions, Fed officials wrote, adding that higher tariff rates were putting upward pressure on costs and prices.

Also on Wednesday afternoon, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its first analysis of the impact of Trumps tariffs on the U.S. economy more broadly, projecting a slight slowing of GDP growth and an increase in consumer prices brought on by Trumps tariffs. Federal government deficits would decline substantially due to the added revenues tariffs bring in, the CBO projected, but increased prices would drive up inflation by nearly 1% by 2026.

White House officials declined to comment on such findings, suggesting instead that reporters should take CBOs tariff revenue estimate of $2.8 trillion at face value, which together show a $500 billion deficit reduction over 10 years.

Behind the scenes, meanwhile, trade negotiations conversations between U.S. and foreign officials continue, with mixed success.

Following President Trumps late-May threat to levy a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met Wednesday with European counterparts in Paris for what was described as a very constructive conversation that indicates a willingness by the EU to work with us to find a concrete way forward to achieve reciprocal trade.

We are advancing in the right direction at pace, echoed European Union trade commissioner Maro efovi following the meetings. I believe we can achieve positive result, efovi added, But we are also ready to defend our interests and do the utmost to rebalance our trade relationship.

Yet, progress towards a trade agreement with China, with which the U.S. maintains the largest trade deficit, remains elusive.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent admitted last week that trade conversations with his Chinese counterparts were a bit stalled. Meanwhile, Beijings official readout of Tuesdays first meeting between U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue and Chinese Foreign Minister pointed to continued friction between the nations.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has introduced a series of negative measures for groundless reasons, infringing upon China's legitimate rights and interests, the Chinese statement read, suggesting the nation firmly opposes such actions.

Though senior White House officials said Monday that Trump would connect with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, no call had yet been scheduled as of Wednesday afternoon.

I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!! Trump wrote on Truth Social early Wednesday morning.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced new details about his Golden Dome missile defense program, suggesting the sweeping effort to protect the United States from foreign attacks would be fully operational before the end of his term in 2029.

Speaking from the Oval Office alongside several Pentagon leaders and Republican lawmakers, President Trump said the U.S. had officially selected an architecture for the system and promised it will be done in about three years. Trump added that hed tapped Gen. Michael Guetlein, currently serving as vice chief of space operations in the U.S. Space Force, to oversee the effort, which he said would cost about $175 billion.

Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space, Trump promised. He also suggested the Canadian government had expressed interest in collaborating with the U.S. on the program.

Experts on military development and weapons systems praised President Trump's move but cautioned not to read too much into the presidents remarks concerning cost and timeline.

"(Gen. Gutlein is a) great choice, and he is as well positioned as any officer I can think of to lead this effort," said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that advocates increased defense spending and military development.

RELATED STORY | Military officials say the US lacks increasingly critical drone-defense tools

However, he conceded that "this is not going to provide 100% protection for every portion of the country. That's not realistic against every possible threat - ballistic, cruise, hypersonic and drone - that's not realistic. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to protect some parts as best we can and build that out over time.

Earlier this month, Lieutenant General Sean Gainey, commander of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, sidestepped questions from reporters at the Pentagon about how widespread the protection from Golden Dome would be.

President Trumps executive order to start the Golden Dome development process asked for an "architecture that can encompass several different types of threats, and really increase the scope and scale of that architecture and focus on protecting the homeland holistically, Gainey said. He added its really hard to determine how much area the system will cover until further along in the process.

Bowman was also dubious of President Trumps three-year timeline.

We're not going to be able to get anywhere close to the more complete protection that the president discussed in three years, he told Scripps News. It's just going to take a lot longer than that.

Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost to deploy a constellation of space-based interceptors capable of defeating just one or two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) would fall somewhere between $161 billion and $542 billion over 20 years, down from a previous high-end estimate of $831 billion due to what the agency said were improvements in cost-effective space deployment.

Representatives in various offices and departments within the Pentagon did not respond to inquiries about how the president arrived at his three-year timeline or $175 billion price tag.

And even that $175 billion cost may stretch federal budgets absent a significant boost in military funding. The Trump administration, in its fiscal year 2026 budget request, sought to maintain Pentagon funding at the same levels as the Biden administration, proposing a Pentagon budget of $893 billion while assuming an additional $150 billion in military appropriations would come from Republicans tax spending cuts package.

The president suggested Tuesday that $25 billion of those funds, pursued through Congresss budget reconciliation process, would act as a deposit towards the Golden Dome program. Yet a number of Republican lawmakers, among them Sen. Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have suggested the presidents Pentagon funding request is inadequate.

If one agrees with me that we're confronting the most dangerous geostrategic moment we've seen as a country since 1945, why the heck does it make sense to have an effective defense budget cut? Bowman posed.

I admire the Trump administration's peace through strength policy, he continued, but you got to put your money where your mouth is.

Democrats, for their part, have criticized the program as far more costly than its worth and called into question which types of companies might stand to benefit from the lucrative contracts behind it. On May 1, a group of 42 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the Inspector General of the Defense Dept. requesting a review of the contract awards process and raising specific questions about whether Elon Musk whose SpaceX company already receives billions in federal contracts and is reportedly the frontrunner to build the missile system has played any role in it.

If you find that Mr. Musk is using his role in the federal government to secure a Golden Dome contract for SpaceX, we ask that you refer the case to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation, the lawmakers wrote.

SpaceX did not respond to an inquiry about the companys involvement in the Golden Dome effort.

Asked about such criticisms during Tuesdays Oval Office announcement, Trump was blunt: Well, theyre wrong, the president told reporters. Its about as perfect as you can have.