For Germany’s middle class, the United States with US President Donald Trump significantly lost its appeal. This emerges from a representative special survey conducted by the state development bank KfW in January as part of the SME Panel, which was first reported on by the World on Sunday reported. The US policy of the past few months is having a negative impact on 52 percent of German medium-sized companies with business relationships in the United States.
25 percent of those surveyed reported “very negative” consequences, another 27 percent reported “somewhat negative” consequences. According to the preliminary report, 36 percent see no changes and seven percent feel favored by the political decisions since Trump took office again in January 2025.
The proportion of medium-sized companieswho still have business relationships at all United States have fallen within a year from 16.4 percent in January 2025 to 11.3 percent in January 2026, the newspaper reported. According to the report, the responses from 1,700 medium-sized companies with annual sales of less than 500 million euros were included in the evaluation of the KfW special survey.
According to the preliminary report, KfW chief economist Dirk Schumacher, interviewed by the newspaper, does not expect a rapid return of medium-sized businesses to the US market. “The reluctance of German companies in the US market is likely to continue until they have more confidence in American economic policy again,” he said. The aggressive tariff policy of the US government in recent months has contributed to the skepticism. The renewed uncertainty about the future development of US customs policy is putting an even greater burden on companies than the higher tariffs.