Report: Trump tariffs killing U.S. manufacturing, with more bad news to come

A new report tells us that the Trump administration’s on-again, off-again, on-again tariffs could end up costing us in the area of half a trillion dollars in manufacturing investments.

“Since April – when President Trump announced the so-called ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on nearly every country – the U.S. has lost 37,000 manufacturing jobs, and hiring in the manufacturing sector has dropped to its lowest level in nearly a decade,” the report, authored by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee, reads.

“The Joint Economic Committee-Minority finds that if economic uncertainty in the U.S. continues as it has over recent months, it could reduce manufacturing investment growth by an average of 13 percent per year, amounting to approximately $490 billion in foregone manufacturing investment by 2029,” the report goes on.

What’s going on here? Simple: uncertainty.

“Businesses are less likely to make long-term investments when they face high uncertainty about future policies and economic conditions. For manufacturers, decisions to expand production – which often entail major, irreversible investments in equipment and new facilities that typically take years to complete – require an especially high degree of confidence that these expenses will pay off,” the report tells us.

Don’t say you weren’t warned. Trump blathered about how much he had a hard-on for tariffs on the campaign trail last year, and economists made it clear that what is happening was going to happen.

“If President Trump were actually focused on lowering costs, he would never have never implemented his idiotic, unpopular sales taxes in the form of tariffs,” U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both D-Va., said in a joint statement on the report.

“This report clearly shows the short and long-term damage Trump’s tariffs will have on American manufacturing businesses and consumers. We’re going to keep doing all that we can to pressure Trump to listen to these critical warning signs, reverse course, and put our economy first,” the senators said.