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Right-wing media said we needed Trump’s tariffs to compete with China — but they’re helping China and hurting US manufacturing

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

When President Donald Trump unveiled his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs on most countries in the world in April, many of his supporters in right-wing media cited the need to compete against China and rebuild American manufacturing as justification. Months later, reporting shows that Trump’s tariffs have backfired, as even some conservatives warned they would, and are hurting American manufacturing and efforts to move manufacturing out of China.

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  • Right-wing media cited competition with China and the restoration of American manufacturing to justify Trump’s tariffs

    • Fox Business host Elizabeth MacDonald claimed Trump is trying to “reignite a manufacturing golden age” and end “a disastrous post-Cold War era.” [Fox Business, The Evening Edit, 4/2/25]
    • Fox Business host Larry Kudlow argued Trump’s tariff plan “makes a lot of sense” because it may lead to more factories being built in America, particularly “if we get these tax cuts through as rapidly as possible.” Kudlow claimed, “The United States has been on the short end of the stick — tariffs, nontariff barriers, currency depreciation, you name it.” He added, “Mr. Trump is placing significant tariffs, baseline tariffs, and reciprocal tariffs on nations who are most offensive to us, and if you make their goods more expensive at home, then hopefully Americans will buy America, produce America, build factories in America. That's the plan.” [Fox Business, Kudlow, 4/2/25]
    • An autoworker interviewed by Fox Business voiced his support for tariffs, arguing that in Trump’s first term, “we saw those jobs come back and we're going to see them come back in even bigger numbers this time.” Autoworker James Benson Jr. predicted that, thanks to Trump and tariffs, the United States will “finally actually have growth in the biggest middle class that we ever saw in our country, which is in the industry and manufacturing.” [Fox Business, The Evening Edit, 4/2/25]
    • Fox Business host Cheryl Casone said that “iPhones are going to be $2,300” but argued that “the fight against China that Donald Trump has brought to the table has been successful and needed to happen.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 4/4/25]
    • Fox News guest and Trump 2024 deputy communications director Caroline Sunshine said Trump’s tariff strategy was like righting a “rigged football game” against China. Sunshine said, “It’s kind of as if for the last 30 years we've been playing a rigged football game. … It’s like the United States versus China, but every time the United States scores, China is going to score two touchdowns.” [Fox News, Fox News @ Night, 4/4/25]
    • Fox guest and Auto Workers for Trump founder Brian Pannebecker claimed that the tariffs would be beneficial to the auto industry. Pannebecker said, “We've been living with pain in Detroit for 30 or 40 years. We know we're going to have to go through some changes here over the next six or eight months, but a year or two from now I think a lot of the analysts, the so-called experts, are going to be singing the praises of Donald Trump's tariff strategy.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co., 4/4/25]
    • Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins argued, “The purpose of these tariffs is to realign the global trade that has been so unfair and imbalanced, with America getting taken advantage of, while bringing American manufacturing jobs — thousands, tens of thousands of them — back to the U.S.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 4/5/25]
    • Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy claimed that “the working class are going to benefit” from Trump’s tariff policies “bringing the manufacturing here.” She explained, “The tariffs are about cheap labor overseas, and the open border was about cheap labor coming here domestically. … Closing the border means wages that were — the illegals who were coming over were competing for the lower end jobs with Americans. That's going to raise the wage and so is bringing the manufacturing here.” A chyron during the segment read, “Trump rolls out sweeping tariffs to protect U.S.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 4/5/25]
    • Fox Business guest Gordon Chang: “We have all of the leverage” against China. “If we don't back down … we will win this trade war,” said Chang. [Fox Business, The Evening Edit, 4/7/25]
    • Fox host Jesse Watters: “Tariffs can unwind years of bad deals. Americans want to reindustrialize.” Watters also dismissed former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calling the goal of tariffs bringing American manufacturing back is “a pipe dream.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 4/14/25]
    • Fox host Laura Ingraham on skepticism that Trump’s tariffs will reignite U.S. manufacturing: “Simplistic does not begin to describe this level of analysis.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 4/14/25]

  • Reports show that Trump’s tariffs are helping China retain manufacturing jobs by harming its competitors

    • The Wall Street Journal: “Trump’s Tariffs Stymie India’s Bid to Steal Manufacturing From China.” The Wall Street Journal reported that following Trump’s first term, “companies grappling for trade certainty have clung to one guiding principle: move production out of China. But months into the president’s [second-term] global tariff barrage, that doesn’t always apply.” The Journal reported that Trump’s tariffs on India have “left companies that have moved production to India scrambling to respond.” The article reported that some companies which planned to shift production from China to India have put those plans on hold. [The Wall Street Journal, 8/13/25]
    • Heatmap News executive editor Robinson Meyer, responding to the Wall Street Journal article: “John Harris, the CEO of Harbinger Motors, mentioned this in our interview. They were set to move a casting process from China to Mexico earlier this year, but Trump’s tariffs made it cheaper to keep it in China.” [Twitter/X, 8/14/25]
    • Cameron Johnson, co-author of the trade and supply chain newsletter Decoupling, on the Wall Street Journal article: “We have seen this, some companies are moving back to China, or have canceled plans to build overseas capacity (outside of China) because the incentives no longer work.” [Twitter/X, 8/14/25]
    • The New York Times: “The heavy U.S. tariffs on other Asian countries have made China a more appealing option for companies scared to make a hasty decision amid upheaval in global trade.” In April, The New York Times reported: “Even as President Trump heaped additional tariffs on China, his barrage of trade levies on countries across Asia and unpredictability about what he might do next have encouraged some companies to hunker down in China, exactly the opposite of what he had hoped.” The article further explained that “for some companies, the so-called reciprocal tariffs have had the unexpected effect of making China an even more appealing place to produce in and buy from. It has eliminated some of the motivation to diversify production or sourcing to places like Vietnam, India or other Asian countries.” [The New York Times, 4/9/25]
    • Bloomberg: “Trump’s move would give India the highest tariff rate in Asia, threatening a manufacturing sector that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spent a decade trying to build to take on the likes of China.” Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman of Indian conglomerate Farida Group, told Bloomberg that as a result of Trump’s 50% tariffs on India: “Forget China Plus One right now. Companies are thinking India Plus One. They are making plans to move out of India.” [Bloomberg, 8/13/25]
    • Bloomberg: “Trump Tariffs Seen Fostering New China-Global South Trade Order.” Bloomberg reported that “Trump’s tariff war is accelerating Beijing’s trade and investment push into developing nations known as the Global South, according to research by S&P Global, potentially creating a new trade order dominated by Chinese firms.” According to the S&P report, “The result could be a new order of global commerce where South–South trade becomes the new center of gravity and Chinese multinationals emerge as the new key players.” [Bloomberg, 8/18/25]

  • Trump’s tariffs are also hurting American manufacturing

    • Manufacturing employment has declined in the three months since Trump’s April announcement of “Liberation Day” tariffs. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since April, U.S. manufacturing employment has declined by 37,000 jobs. (This data is subject to further revision.) [Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed 8/15/25]
    • Multiple American car manufacturers have reported billion-dollar profit losses due to Trump’s tariffs. [Media Matters, 7/25/25; Reuters, 8/7/25]
    • Quartz: “U.S. manufacturing production reported no growth in July as tariffs squeeze costs.” Quartz, citing new data from the Federal Reserve, reported: “Domestic manufacturing production did not change from June, which saw a 0.3% increase from May. … Mining dropped 0.4% while utilities decreased 0.2%. Overall, industrial production dipped 0.1% in July.” Quartz added: “This new report from the Fed could indicate that U.S.-based manufacturing is starting to slow down as companies fare against steep global tariffs.” [Quartz, 8/15/25]
    • CNN: “Trump’s shock-and-awe tariffs haven’t fueled a manufacturing jobs boom.” CNN reported that “the chaotic policy rollout is paralyzing businesses. Economists and trade researchers say the haphazard nature of the trade war is compounding the longer-term pressure on US manufacturing.” CNN further reported: “Factory hiring plunged in May, below even the Covid-19 pandemic pace, to the weakest rate since 2016 under President Barack Obama, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manufacturing job openings — a sign of what’s to come — have plunged by nearly 100,000 since Trump took office.” [CNN, 7/11/25]
    • The Wall Street Journal: “President Trump has claimed that his sweeping tariff regime will reshore American companies and revive manufacturing in the U.S. So far, that hasn’t happened.” The Journal reported: “Economic activity tied to manufacturing has shrunk for most of Trump’s second term. A few investments and pledges aimed at beefing up domestic manufacturing appear timed to appease the president, and may or may not come to fruition. … Beneath the shiny announcements lies a sector that can’t seem to get off the ground.” The Journal further reported: “From March to July, U.S. manufacturing activity contracted, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s monthly survey. The Manufacturing PMI last registered at 48, below the 50 score that differentiates growth and decline.” According to economists interviewed by the Journal, “The unpredictability of Trump’s trade wars still makes it impossible for companies to decide on big capital commitments, like moving a factory from Asia to the U.S.” [The Wall Street Journal, 8/6/25]
    • Politico: “Trump’s sweeping new tariffs threaten to erode the long-term competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing, jeopardizing one of his top goals, according to economists on both sides of the political aisle.” The article explained that because Trump has raised tariffs so high, companies in other countries “will be able to source foreign supplies more cheaply than their U.S. competitors, potentially enabling them to sell goods in their home markets and in third countries at a lower price. Over time, that could take a significant toll on U.S. exports, frustrating Trump’s goal of reducing the U.S. trade deficit, even if tariffs cause imports to decline.” Politico cited National Foreign Trade Council Vice President John Pickel, who explained that “a company that sells mining equipment will have to import some material to build that equipment, whether its manufacturing occurs in Asia or the U.S. But an Asian firm can now purchase those inputs with a substantially lower tariff, giving it a big advantage over its U.S. competitors.” Conservative economist Doug Holtz-Eakin additionally explained to Politico that “if Trump’s levies remain in place for years to come, other countries are likely to strike agreements that slash tariffs on each other’s goods, but not on those from the U.S.” [Politico Pro, 8/15/25]