BILLINGS — Tariffs may be a word most have heard more in the last month than in their entire lives as it’s one of the most talked-about policies of President Donald Trump’s new proposals, but a new report indicates that Montana could feel the brunt of these tariffs more than any other state.

Tariff talk is everywhere. It’s just one issue on the minds of many Americans as seen in protests across the country earlier this week, uncertain on how they will play out.

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“I think the tariffs, they're a part of that same overreach by our government,” said Billings resident Steve Zediker during Monday's "Not My President's Day" protest in Billings. “A large part of our import comes from Canada. We're going to lose building materials, we're going to lose processed food, we're going to lose energy, and the consumer is the one that's going to be paying for that."

"We look at immigration, we look at tariffs, those are all a real threat,” added protester Sullivan Huebner.

Trump's plan aims to impose tariffs, essentially taxes on imports, on Canada, Mexico, and China to equalize trade practices, citing fairness, fighting illegal immigration and drug trafficking, job growth, and increased U.S. revenue as key justifications.

"They charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff," said Trump at the White House last week.

Montana consumers could be concerned, according to LendingTree. The finance site released a new report showing that Montana will be the state potentially most impacted. According to Census Bureau data from 2023, over 90 percent of Montana’s imports come from Canada, $6,818,286,900, which Trump has proposed a 25 percent increase on.

“If prices were to rise because of them, then Montana could be in a position to be really heavily impacted,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.

Increases on Montana’s top industries like crude oil, petroleum, platinum, and natural gas could trickle down to small businesses and consumers. In 2023, the state imported over $8 billion worth of goods, with crude petroleum oils comprising over 50 percent of those imports at $4.86 billion, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).

“The ideas that these tariffs would be blanket tariffs covering everything, (...) so that could potentially lead to the higher costs at the pump and that sort of thing, and obviously oil is used in the production of lots of things," said Schulz. "There's always some risk involved there, especially when you're talking about an economy that's been wrangling with inflation for some time.”

Schulz cautioned that Montana is among the states most likely to face retaliatory tariffs, or those imposed by those countries in response to U.S. tariffs, which can further escalate trade tensions and increase costs for American consumers.

"It's clear that the president is seeing these tariffs as a negotiating tool, at least to some degree, so there's certainly no guarantee that these things will come into play," said Schulz.

The report also found that 3 in 4 Americans believe tariffs will lead to higher prices, and Montanans are no exception.

“Yes, it's going to affect me. It's going to affect all of us," said Zediker.

“For anybody who likes a lifestyle of good food and going out to eat and having groceries and putting their kids through college, God help you. It's going to be really rough," added Huebner

Only time will tell what the full impacts will be, but Schulz says that preparing for the worst can make you better off in any scenario.

“With so much uncertainty, really taking control of the things that you can take control of is the best way to manage these things, so work on knocking down your debt, work on building your emergency fund and having as little debt and as much savings as you can is the best way to be prepared for whatever may come," said Schulz.