By Sydney Ember

Copyright nytimes

“It’s just a lot to keep track of,” she said. “I’m not even sure what all is happening.”

Mr. Trump’s tariffs have also inspired a flood of small businesses to speak out more publicly.

Lori Andre, who owns Lori’s Shoes, a women’s shoe and clothing store with three locations in the Chicago area, hosted a news conference earlier this year with Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and talked about how the tariffs have damaged her business at a town hall in July.

“We don’t have that same buying power or negotiating power that a lot of large corporations have,” she said in an interview. “It’s small independents like us that are really feeling the squeeze.”

Ms. Andre, who started Lori’s Shoes 43 years ago, said that she was trying urgently to keep her company afloat. She raised prices by a minimum of 10 percent. She laid off one worker this summer and is not offering pay raises this year to the rest of her roughly 35 employees.

When Mr. Trump threatened in July to impose 30 percent tariffs on the European Union, where she buys footwear for her store’s private label, she made a snap decision to fly in some shoes before the levies took hold — only to have Mr. Trump ultimately lower the base rate to 15 percent.