Trump’s steel tariffs are already threatening American jobs

When Trump ran on creating more good paying American jobs and on creating a more business friendly environment, many took him seriously and backed him at the polls. Among that number are those manufacturers that happen to still be producing in America, for whatever reason.

But some American companies that use the raw materials that Trump has passed import tariffs on are finding them to be anything but business friendly, and anything but friendly towards American jobs. In fact, they’re seeing their production costs increase dramatically, they’re having to cut jobs, and they’re looking to the Democrats for help.

The Hill reports:

An executive for the largest U.S. nail producer who voted for President Trump said he is so dismayed by the president’s trade policies that he is lobbying a Democratic senator for help.

George Skarich, vice president of sales for Missouri-based Mid Continent Nail Corporation, told The New York Times that his nail company could soon go out of business.

“He ran on ‘Make America Great Again,’ and the point was to defend and protect jobs in the United States,” Skarich told the Times.

“Now here is an action he decides to take that has the potential to cost 500 U.S. citizens their jobs,” he added, referring to the 25 percent tariffs on steel imports that Trump announced in March.

The tariffs, Skarich said, prompted his company to have to raise its prices by almost 20 percent. Skarich told the Times that his company’s orders have dropped by half this month, facing stiff competition from cheaper foreign manufacturers.

The company has reportedly cut 60 jobs and might cut up to 200 more in coming weeks. Skarich said he blames Trump for the layoffs.

Because of the tariffs, Skarich said he is lobbying Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) for help.

McCaskill, speaking at a Senate Finance Committee hearing this week, pressed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on the tariffs.

“It appears to me that in a chaotic and frankly incompetent manner, you’re picking winners and losers on a very technical basis according to all the reporting we have, without a great deal of training, and the regulatory burden is so extreme on small businesses,” she said.

In March, Trump implemented tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum. On Friday, he threatened, in a tweet, to unilaterally impose a 20 percent tariff on European cars.

Meanwhile, right wing pro-Trump rhetoric tells us that all of this is for our own good, and that this is all just a part his master plan to strengthen America, and that it’s all going to work out fantastic in the long term, even though there might be some hardships experienced in the short term. We just gotta power through it, they tell us.

Do they mean that the wealth is going to trickle down to those layed off workers (while we can expect cuts to unemployment benefits)? And that, since these companies are keeping so much more of their revenue because of Trump’s tax plan that they’re just gonna plow it all back into their business in a way that is gonna benefit the average American through more jobs and higher wages? Maybe the rhetoric is right, maybe it is gonna be fantastic.