Donald Trump surged to the presidency in 2016 promising to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S., but The Guardian reports that his administration has done little to turn around the industry's long-term decline.
An analysis by the Economics Policy Institute shows that the US gained around 500,000 manufacturing jobs between 2016 and 2019. "Trump’s trade wars hurt manufacturing but then came the coronavirus pandemic," The Guardian reports. "Even after adding 66,000 manufacturing jobs in September, the sector is still 647,000 jobs short of where it was in February before the pandemic hit the US." Between 2016 and 2018, almost 1,800 factories disappeared from the U.S.
Speaking to The Guardian, former decades-long Indiana factory worker Chuck Jones blamed Trump personally for exporting jobs to Mexico.
“We put up a hell of a fight as far as rallies, protests, and trying to get the word out. Trump picked up on it. He kept on mentioning Carrier during his campaign speeches and claiming if he was president, it wouldn’t happen,” Jones said.
“Almost four years into his term, he hasn’t proved at all he brought jobs back. There’s the biggest trade deficit with China in history,” he added. “People have to open their eyes up and realize he isn’t what he said he was. He’s had four years to prove it. Why in the hell would anybody vote for him again under those circumstances.”
Read the full report over at The Guardian.