From his trade wars to his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump has continuously failed to stand up to China.
After nearly four years in office, it’s clear: Trump’s chaotic trade policy has failed American workers.
- Wall Street Journal: China Trade War Didn’t Boost U.S. Manufacturing Might “By early 2020, even before the pandemic reached the U.S., manufacturing job growth had stalled out, and factories shed workers in four of the six months through March.”
- New York Times: Trump’s Manufacturing Promises Disappoint as Economy Sours: “Foxconn’s failure to create the kind of factory powerhouse that Mr. Trump described demonstrates how the president’s promise of an American manufacturing renaissance has not always resulted in the pledged jobs or economic investment.”
- CNN: Trump promised to win the trade war with China. He failed “Trump vowed to cut the US trade deficit, but instead it’s reached historic highs. He wanted China to buy more American products, but that hasn’t happened as much as Washington would like. And he’s made almost no progress on big structural issues that American companies care most about.”
- Associated Press: Trump trade policy: 4 years of high drama. Limited results. “Contrary to his assertions, too, Trump’s tariffs have been paid by American importers, not foreign countries. And their cost is typically passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.”
Farmers, from dairy to produce, have been devastated by Trump’s trade war with China.
- More than 2,000 dairy farms have closed in Wisconsin since Trump took office, with a record 818 shutting down in 2019.
- Wisconsin continues to lead the nation in farm bankruptcies.
- Trump farm bailouts, which cost billions of taxpayer dollars, were a drop in the bucket for the small and medium sized farms that needed the aid most and largely went to the large agriculture companies that could weather his trade wars.
- In 2017, Wisconsin grew 95% of the United States ginseng and 85% of their produce was sold or carried into China as gifts. Many of these farmers saw their businesses plummet because of the trade war.
Farmers got virtually nothing for what the trade war has cost them.
- After promising roughly $50 billion in purchases from China in Phase One, the USDA predicted China would only purchase $14 billion in agriculture products.
- Trump’s farm-aid packages have done little to make up for what small and medium-size family farms have lost as a result of Trump’s trade war with China.
- In the lastest farm bailout, the top 10% received 2/3s of the bailout money.
- The top half of recipients received 95% of the $28 billion that was administered through the Market Facilitation Program.
- Trump pushed for a grand photo of the signing of Phase One at the same time he was ignoring the warnings of COVID-19 from his intelligence community.
Manufacturers have also felt the burden of Trump’s trade war and his kowtowing to the Chinese government in the early months of the pandemic.
- Under Donald Trump’s watch, Wisconsin’s trade deficit has ballooned $5 billion from 2016 to 2019.
- Despite grand promises, Wisconsin is down more than 6,000 manufacturing jobs since Donald Trump took office, with the Badger state losing factory jobs in 2019 and through the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In July, Harley Davidson announced they were laying off 700 workers. Trump previously called for a boycott of the Milwaukee based motorcycle manufacturing company.
- Briggs & Stratton, a small engine manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy and plans to sell its assets.
- Verso Papers announced it was firing 900 of its employees from the Wisconsin Rapids plant because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
