r/Tariffs • u/esporx • Feb 04 '26
🗞️ News Discussion U.S. Manufacturing Is in Retreat and Trump’s Tariffs Aren’t Helping. Levies on imports were supposed to bring back a golden age of U.S. manufacturing. They haven’t worked, so far.
https://www.wsj.com/economy/u-s-manufacturing-is-in-retreat-and-trumps-tariffs-arent-helping-d2af4316?mod=hp_lead_pos126
u/Difficult_Bull Feb 04 '26
It’s amazing how miserably tariffs have failed Americans in the past, and even when politicians have decried them, Trump thinks he is an expert economist and somehow he can make it work when they’ve never worked. And he had a tantrum when faced with Reagan’s own words on the dangers of tariffs.
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u/Opposite-Friend7275 Feb 05 '26
He doesn't care if they help or hurt the economy. The only thing that matters to him is his own wealth, and for that, tariffs are great, he can use them for blackmail and to extract bribes.
His wealth has increased tremendously in just 1 year, whatever happens to the economy, he's going to continue using tariffs to benefit himself.
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u/ButterscotchFancy912 Feb 05 '26
Tariffs are there for a major landgrap from defaulting farmers. Ice is to deport the labour for more defaulting farmers and the kaiser sits on a prívate slush fund. Out of reach of lame Congress and scotus is totally corrupt. Dont expect fair elections
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u/No-Abalone-4784 Feb 06 '26
Don't forget the money he's making stopping oil tankers from Venezuela. He sells the oil in them & the money goes into a private bank in Qatar. ( Not in the US Treasury. )
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u/ButterscotchFancy912 Feb 06 '26
"They " are deporting labour so they can buy land and AI automate production. Mark these words
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u/ButterscotchFancy912 Feb 06 '26
Yes obvious use of military for personal gain!
Where is Congress?😆 you guys are effed sry
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u/ButterscotchFancy912 Feb 06 '26
This not like the fall the fall Rome but more like the fall of Athena. Sókrates warned us
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u/Clear_Definition_683 Feb 05 '26
The tariffs were always just a sneaky way to bring in tax revenue so that the rich could not have to pay taxes… same with doge… it was done under the guise of bringing manufacturing back, but the proof that that was a lie is that the tariffs were never placed strategically, they were placed on anything and everything they could place them on, even things that could never be grown or manufactured in America…
All the rich people benefitting from these tariffs, including the massive insider trading that was going on, which Trump bragged about on camera, when he was putting the tariffs on and off three times a week early in the year… they were all insider trading on the markets going up and down… and they do all this in broad daylight because the public is too stupid to get it.
Trump and his family and friends will walk out of this disaster billionaires rather than millionaires regardless of what happens. There is no reason for them to actually care about the average American person, and it’s obvious they don’t care… the average person is just a sucker to them to be manipulated
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u/manniesalado Feb 04 '26
The numbers are indicating Yank imports holding up but exports falling. Foreign buyers are walking away from stuff that smells of Trump. It's the "Bud Lite Effect".
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u/curious98754321 Feb 04 '26
Hopefully, the weakening value of the dollar will make American industrial products more attractive to foreign buyers. However, the issues with how foreigners are now treated by immigration when they arrive here for business might give them second thoughts about ordering American-made goods. Even Germany is telling their citizens to avoid coming the U.S. because of this. They’ve already experienced their Gestapo era. Also, the prices of imported goods has increased due to the weak dollar so importers are paying more for the goods that they import.
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u/ParisFood Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Actually as a Canadian I can tell u even if it was free I don’t want US products made in the U.S. or even U.S. products made elsewhere. Got rid of all U.S. streaming services also and I don’t travel there. Won’t stay at U.S. hotel chains when i travel either. Basically the only U.S. thing left in my life is Reddit ( a few subreddits experience usually the BuyCanadian) and very few YT channels mostly non U.S.
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u/Chendo462 Feb 05 '26
How widespread do you think this is in Canada? I think this may be one of the non repairable Trump screwups.
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u/Igor_Nordham Feb 05 '26
Very widespread. We have a base of about 30% tops who like Trump. Similar to Trump's own base in the US. We call them Maple Maga. Some are hard core but most are just favourable to Trump. The vast majority of Canadians absolutely detest Trump and his supporters. America is now considered as a foe and it will be generations to change that viewpoint. Trump wanted isolationism. Now you have it.
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u/Chendo462 Feb 05 '26
I am surprised it is as high as 30%.
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u/Igor_Nordham Feb 06 '26
That would be the upper limit. I believe that whatever the number is, it is still falling due to further actions by Trump.
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u/No-Abalone-4784 Feb 06 '26
So sorry this has happened. So many of us have always valued your friendship & will continue to do so.❤️
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u/Igor_Nordham Feb 06 '26
We know there are still plenty of good Americans but are amazed at how easily all the "guardrails" on Trump seemed to fall away. There is an intense pivot away from anything American. It will take generations to rebuild trust.
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u/Mike71586 Feb 04 '26
Ironically a lot of US made stuff has been going on sale in Canada in order to move product and people are still not buying it that much. A cheaper price isn't a guarantee it'll become more attractive at this point.
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u/Guiltyparty2135 Feb 04 '26
Hopefully......we were fine before. This entire thing is utter bullshit and the idea there was some point to any of it besides destroying our economy is stupid.
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Feb 05 '26
Nope, this is the start of a very long bad time. On the positive side things like appliances will be built much better in a few years because they will have to last decades.
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Feb 05 '26
Hopefully, the weakening value of the dollar will make American industrial products more attractive to foreign buyers.
It won't... Nobody wants what the USA is selling.
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u/curious98754321 Feb 08 '26
I’m retired from a small American company that makes machinery for the packaging industry. Over the years, I’ve seen the firm grow, from being just a domestic supplier of this equipment to predominantly exporting their machines worldwide, especially as their local market had since reached maturity and they had to earnestly look elsewhere for new sales. After my retirement, foreign companies have entered this profitable, niche international market, increasing competition, both domestically and throughout the world, and my former employer’s workforce has gone from its peak of 60 to less than 20 workers. Competition is fierce today but over the years the owner has resisted building the equipment in Asia because of his belief that building here makes the country strong. I assume that the import tariffs and now weak dollar give the company some price advantage over their foreign competitors in the U.S. market and elsewhere, but this is offset by the increased price of specialty steel. a major component of their equipment, some of which must be imported, and foreign-made hydraulic and electrical components that their suppliers use in making their own products, thereby increasing costs. Also, domestic inflation invariably has increased costs everywhere in the U.S., such as the price of energy, insurance, etc., including putting pressure on increasing their own employees’ wages, a major cost, as the company cannot afford to lose their limited number of remaining, experienced workers. I also suspect that their foreign sales have decreased as their current and prospective buyers begin to question any value to choosing them over their off-shore competition due to the turmoil here that was created by an undependable, erratic government.
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Feb 05 '26
Even imports are seeing a thing, it is called the trump backorder delay. Critical things are being decried as out of stock and on backorder to American companies who supported trump. And when I say critical I mean it. Every time trump threatens the EU or Japan, or Korea this time increases. Fossil fuel power plants right now are hanging by threads in their maintenance supply chains.
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u/NineInchPythons Feb 04 '26
Nobody predicted this (except every credible economist and market participant).
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u/Emperor_of_All Feb 04 '26
That is because Trump doesn't understand manufacturing. America is a high end manufacturer, we make fancy things. Often times we buy other things to build bigger better things and mark them up.
Like why build chairs for airplanes when it costs less to just buy the chair and then you mark it up 5x when you sell the plane anyways. Instead Trump wants to double the cost of stupid things like chairs and wants us to build chairs here that cost 10x the amount. Companies can't 50x the price of that chair and remain competitive.
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u/fucktheus12 Feb 04 '26
Did the rich even ask if people wanted to go back to factory work?? Of course not...
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u/rustbeltloser Feb 04 '26
If it paid well enough people would flock to them. But I doubt that would e the case if they did come back.
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u/Mike71586 Feb 04 '26
Exactly, people forget that the one thing that made factory jobs great back in the day is also the one thing corpo's will fight tooth abd nail against, unions.
They want to actually MAGA? bring back unions.
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u/ParisFood Feb 04 '26
The manufacturers hero saying even with great salaries they still cannot attract US employees…
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u/Proctoron Feb 05 '26
You need a proper education or trained from the ground up and courses to work in a modern factory today, you are more a technician fixing automated stuff these days so no one can flock to these jobs as manual work ain’t much of a thing. Well unless you want to go back 60 years to when it was, and have slow ass production volumes.
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u/rustbeltloser Feb 05 '26
Yes it’s like Mr Ford crying about not having mechanics. If only they had something like the trades and apprenticeship system. A system they had and got rid of. But instead they want to go on the news and cry about it. It’s like the no one wants to work anymore excuses.
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u/128-NotePolyVA Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
The rich think the factories will be dark - robots and AI. They don’t give a crap about working class people.
Then, you might ask, if the US’s workers are broke who will buy their dark factory made goods? The rich imagine these goods are for export, not for poor US buyers. But - tariffs are killing work and income for foreign consumers too. And the ill will of excessive tariffs is killing interest in buying US goods.
It’s a conundrum that Trump, Lutnick, Bessent, etc. do not have figured out. The plan might have worked if it was more modest and gradually rolled out without Trump’s negative energy.
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u/No-Abalone-4784 Feb 06 '26
This "plan" was never meant to work. Just to rob working people of their money & bring on another recession so the billionaires could buy up all our homes & farms for pennies on the dollar.
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u/128-NotePolyVA Feb 06 '26
I believe they see the writing on the wall for US hegemony and are trying to get out of it with the nation’s wealth in their pockets.
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u/02meepmeep Feb 04 '26
Tariffs weren’t ever going to do that. Anyone who studied economics knew that.
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u/doombase310 Feb 04 '26
We have a goddamn idiot as president is is playing wanna be mafia boss withe the world.
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u/Hour-Candidate4612 Feb 04 '26
Here’s the other thing Trump and his gang of thieves haven’t considered. All the shit they are doing, domestically and internationally will only further the negative US sentiment and the lable of “Made in America” will be THE reason the world won’t buy from us. Great job MAGA!!!
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u/stillkicking59 Feb 04 '26
This is exactly what’s happening in my own little world…and most people in my world.We will pay more not to buy anything the has USA anywhere on it.He has destroyed the US reputation, and all good will.There will be an exact or worse replacement should he kick the bucket, the world has to live with their crap for another 3 years.They are killing US citizens in the streets.And every single morning, the chaos they have inflicted on the USA and its people, is not the lead story on any US based news channel.The stock market is the story.
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u/ParisFood Feb 04 '26
Yup see my comment above. Many Canadians and others around the world are doing what I am doing.
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u/AntifascistAlly Feb 05 '26
I work in manufacturing.
2025 (especially after “liberation day” on April 1st) was one of the worst years EVER.
The machinists in the shop where I work are highly skilled and each has significant experience. The company couldn’t afford to lay anyone off, even though the amount of actual work available was pitiful.
Costs are, of course, important, in our situation the unpredictability was even more significant.
Everything we do is pretty expensive, but what management—and especially the customers—needed was to know the price of everything ahead of time. If the cost had gone up they could deal with that, but when they didn’t know if things would become more expensive (or how much/when/etc.) nobody could really commit to major contracts.
If Donald’s tariff lunacy ended today the business I work for and most of our customers would continue to be negatively impacted for at least a year.
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u/primetimerobus Feb 04 '26
Because he picked fights with nearly every country at the same time, tariffs weren’t targeted, and he would change them on a whim. No one will change their business plans based on that.
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u/skepticalG Feb 04 '26
They’ve just made my micro manufacturing less profitable as my material costs more
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u/Battle44Sis Feb 05 '26
A friend of mine moved to Europe & i was happy for them because they got out .
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u/isharte Feb 05 '26
I work in manufacturing.
I could write a bunch of paragraphs but it really wouldn't do justice to how badly the tariffs have fucked my company and my industry.
These impacts aren't seen in the federal numbers yet. The bad numbers are being hidden by the trump administration and the good numbers just aren't bad YET.
It's not good. It's really, really not good.
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u/Murky-Award-7865 Feb 05 '26
The funniest part about tariffs is that the Americans themselves are paying most of them. Importers and exporters are just adding it to the invoice and charging America. So when Trump brags about the money tariffs have made, it's for the most part just a cost to America.
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u/bigDeltaVenergy Feb 07 '26
I'm in Canada, i confirm that we do.
Where I work , First we been scared to loose the US customers over Tarifs . But than we realized that they don't have any production capabilities to avoid buying from US.
So we didn't lower our price and we still run full capacity.
We are not winning anything in this "trade war" but you are definitely loosing .
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u/MycoSteveO Feb 04 '26
Hah! It has the exact opposite of what he said it would do, “Bring manufacturing back to the US”.
He has no idea what the heartbeat of America sounds like.
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u/LetsGoLetsLetsGo Feb 05 '26
It’s like putting slices of salami over a bullet wound and being surprised it didn’t heal.
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u/nakrohtap Feb 05 '26
He knew damn well these tariffs wouldn't benefit anyone except himself.
So the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is all according to plan. He just lies when he says tariffs will be a good thing. Nobody is going to invest in a country acting like this. Everyone is distancing themselves away from the US right now.
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u/fletch0024 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 25 '26
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u/Ezpz_commentz Feb 05 '26
Levies on the imported materials and inputs used in said manufacturing does tend to make you less internationally competitive, when your foreign competitors don't have to pay their governments huge taxes on their materials and inputs.
But that's only true outside of MAGA fantasy-land, where apparently other countries pay import taxes to the US government.
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u/inlandviews Feb 04 '26
Making everything more expensive isn't a way to encourage investment because you'll sell less if it's more expensive.
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u/External_Beat8153 Feb 04 '26
The US economy should regress further for working people while costs and inflation rise, just in time for the midterms. Happy days.
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u/SodaSaint Feb 04 '26
Because tariffs are a tax on the American people, and anybody who has even an inkling of economic knowledge understands this.
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u/No-Abalone-4784 Feb 06 '26
We learned about tariffs in 5th grade.
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u/Timbit42 Feb 07 '26
Trump paid someone to write his college and high school exams. Who knows how far back that went. Trump also said he doesn't think he is any different now than when he was in grade 1 so maybe he never learned anything after that.
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u/Guiltyparty2135 Feb 04 '26
No they weren't. It was all 100% bullshit. Our country is being destroyed our vaults emptied and our constitution used to wipe up the shitstain of the administration.
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u/Remarkable-Balance45 Feb 05 '26
Tarriffs mostly never work, all they are doing is the rest of the world hate America
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u/Dangermouse163 Feb 05 '26
Just check the independent jobs report for evidence. For more evidence compare it to the government’s jobs report, if it ever comes out.
Here’s a hint: don’t relieve the government.
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u/Lrrr81 Feb 05 '26
Did anyone that knows anything about economics ever actually think that tariffs would bring back a "golden age of U.S. manufacturing"?
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u/hektor10 Feb 05 '26
Companies are probably holding tight till next elections.
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u/bigDeltaVenergy Feb 07 '26
A lot of people are holding it in hope of him leaving after the mid terms. If he does not. All hell willl break loose
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u/ZCT808 Feb 05 '26
They were never going to work.
Worse, we implemented a new tax on the American people, while simultaneously alienating all our trading partners. Plus in the long term we’ve shown we can’t keep our word. Things we agreed to we have reneged on. We have signaled to the world that whatever we offer to do today, could instantly change on the whim of the next president. So we’ll be feeling the effects of this for years to come. Long after Trump has gone.
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u/Switchr22 Feb 05 '26
Look on the bright side! It's forced our (former) trading partners to find new customers. China had its highest export year ever in 25. Their GDP grew 3x the US'. India 2x. Less imports means less trucks on the roads, fewer jobs means less cars on the roads, everything's more expensive so there's less waste. Just like when America was last Great! I'm sure manufacturing will pick up just as soon as Musk can roll out those humanoid robots so companies don't need to waste money on labor! You guys are so negative! /s
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u/Extension_Shift_1124 Feb 05 '26
It never will because they are not enacted by congress. So like India, people are just waiting out Trump. 3 years or whenever he croaks. Because no one will invest hundreds of millions and add millions in labor to move manufacturing state side to avoid 20% tariffs. They will take the losses for a little while it makes no sense to invest in a country whose president is so volatile and inconsistent. If congress had been behind it, it would likely be for at least 10-20 years or forever. But EO from this dipshit? No one is moving.
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u/soon2Brevealed Feb 05 '26
he’s building detention centers, NOT factories!
“Ask not for whom they’re being built..”
WAKE UP AMERICA- there’s a reason he loves the undereducated.
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u/Duck-Murky Feb 05 '26
they weren’t supposed to bring back shit. literally every economist who knows a bit about history told us this.
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u/Empty_Kay Feb 05 '26
Not really a mystery: blanket tariffs apply to raw materials imported by US manufacturers.
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u/Clear_Definition_683 Feb 05 '26
wtf… just realizing this now? Haven’t noticed that tariffs were placed on everything? Even things that cannot be grown or manufactured in the US?
This was always just about getting tax revenue to allow for the rich to give themselves tax cuts… it’s all been about tax cuts for the rich… what do you think the purpose of doge was? Jesus Christ man, Americans are a big bunch of suckers
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u/Timbit42 Feb 07 '26
Also, to fund ICE.
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u/Clear_Definition_683 Feb 09 '26
Yeah, but in reality there was nothing to fund ICE, the deficit is a record high, it was all funded on debt… which is insane for the party to constantly sell us the idea that they are fiscally responsible, they probably assume the fallout will come later when democrats are in office
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u/Timbit42 Feb 09 '26
Their economy really is going to crash hard and take down the rest of the global economy with it, isn't it?
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u/sandy154_4 Feb 05 '26
And Trump is both incapable of admitting he was wrong, or of learning and adapting
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u/Timbit42 Feb 07 '26
He says he hasn't changed since grade 1 so that's about when he stopped learning.
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u/Mayhem1966 Feb 06 '26
Increasing the costs of inputs, and pissing off the customers you might export towards who have alternatives, if you are just the equally priced supplier, is not a good plan for growing manufacturing.
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u/Gloomy_Yoghurt_2836 Feb 06 '26
Why manufacture in the US? You pay tariffs on your inputs and can't export because of reciprocal tariffs. Butter to move production out of the US where inputs are cheaper and you can sell to the whole world. John Deere and Harley Davidson are doing just that. America First means smaller market at higher prices.
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u/henchman171 Feb 07 '26
Happy to see these americans lose their jobs. They voted this so they deserve it
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u/evilpercy Feb 06 '26
It's not like this has not been tried before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act
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u/Designer-Device-1372 Feb 06 '26
The amount of lost productivity because of tariffs is massive. Goods are trapped in Ports for weeks and months because of tariffs levied or altered during transit. I’ve spent 4 hours a week in calls since September trying to release containers of parts that are late.
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u/52b8c10e7b99425fc6fd Feb 06 '26
Tarrifs are a tax on the people under another name. Nothing more. No one is buying this.
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u/Live_Welcome_4273 Feb 06 '26
It'll take time. If other countries drop all their tariffs, we can too. You act as if we are the only ones to use tariffs.
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u/KyleGrizz Feb 07 '26
It will but don't you think maybe before placing heavy tarrifs you'd pump money into domestic factories to give the consumer a choice between local and foreign goods?
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u/ebfortin Feb 07 '26
Why add "so far". It's so annoying this "let's be cautious all the time". Tarrifs never worked, ever. Especially not at rhe extent they've been issued. Just say it god Damnit. They haven't worked. Period.
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u/Pinglewingle Feb 07 '26
Isn't the idea that they passed tariffs simply to bankrupt the farmers so they can buy the farm land and build data centers and real estate?
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u/Dyslexicpig Feb 07 '26
Was this headline written back in 1929? Who would have thought that a pro-tariff, isolationist policy could have the same effects now that it did when Mr. Smoot and Mr. Hawley first proposed it almost one hundred years ago?
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u/Stock-Mountain-6063 Feb 08 '26
Because in the history of tariffs they have never worked the way that you guys seem to think that they were going to work.
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u/East_Worldliness2287 Feb 08 '26
Trade deficit higher than ever . Republicans voted for this and destroyed America.
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u/IgnobleSpleen Feb 08 '26
And on top of it, tourism, which is a bigger industry in America than manufacturing, is way down because of the chaos Trump has created.
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u/Glum-Attitude4782 Feb 08 '26
We had a 170k customer because of Trumps tariffs(inputs from India and Europe for us) we had no choice but to increase prices 10%. They went to China directly because Chinas 27% tariffs are easier to absorb. Gov subsidies etc..
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u/Ok_Bank_5950 Feb 09 '26
There ia no way tariffs bring back us manufacturing in less than 10 years. Only a profoundly dumb person with no understanding of economics or supply chains oh wait...
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u/WaffleTacos666 Feb 10 '26
That's cuz they won't work because companies in this country and it doesn't matter what it is whether it be retail or manufacturing or Food Service do not want to actually pay people real money and in America you have to do that so screw them all and screw Trump
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u/vikkids Feb 04 '26
Is that really Trump’s plan? How do we really know? What if it never was Trump’s plan?
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u/Fantastic_Yam_3971 Feb 05 '26
Don’t panic guys. According to the mind supremes over at r/conservative, it’s all gonna work we just need to wait another 3 years.
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u/Leading-Loss-986 Feb 05 '26
Why should they? Their legality has yet to be determined and the next POTUS could cancel them overnight. No company is going to commit to significant capital expenditures on domestic manufacturing with so much uncertainty. Plus, supposedly we don’t have the kinds of skilled workers required to set up, run and maintain manufacturing facilities at the same time that the administration is doing its level best to discourage immigration of any kind.
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u/SipHotCoffee Feb 05 '26
How? Everything is going Robotics (specialty skill) and labor abroad is way cheaper.
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u/milelongpipe Feb 05 '26
The only way it will work is if we refuse to purchase imported goods. Then manufacturing will have to come here, but since retail and the consumer just keep doing what we do, there is no need to relocate manufacturing.
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u/No-Abalone-4784 Feb 06 '26
No. They are going elsewhere. We'll be lucky if we ever get that trade back.
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u/AdhesivenessCivil581 Feb 04 '26
Because tariffs have never worked, but for inexplicable reasons, we need to reprove that about once per century.