With President Donald Trump’s tariffs already being felt across the American economy, the president has told Americans to be patient, and that his trade policy would soon usher in a resurgence of domestic manufacturing jobs.
And yet, as job growth slows and prices tick up, Trump’s promise to reshore domestic manufacturing has not only not come to fruition, it appears to be “going in the wrong direction,” according to one analyst who spoke with the Washington Post Saturday.
“We aren’t even seeing the beginnings of a tariff-related recovery in manufacturing,” said Dean Baker, an economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic Policy Research in Washington, speaking with the Washington Post. “You don’t expect to see it overnight. But it’s going in the wrong direction.”
Trump’s tariff policy has already begun to take its toll on the American economy according to a number of economists; prices have risen, job growth has slowed dramatically, and inflation has ticked up.
Trump has told Americans to be patient, that his tariff policy would see the economy rebound by next year, and at the very least, the stiff tariffs would ignite an explosion of domestic manufacturing jobs, with the policies incentivizing companies to reshore their operations to avoid paying steep penalties.
However, the tariffs now appear to be having the opposite effect, with import taxes impacting supply chains, and the uncertainty of Trump’s tariff policy – with tariff rates being adjusted for specific countries multiple times, unpredictably – giving cause for companies to be hesitant with their investments.