Indiana businessman Dan Holtz, who owns a small accessories manufacturing firm Troyer Products, admits that his business has slowed down just as President Donald Trump's tariffs kicked in to raise the prices of foreign steel and aluminum.
However, Holtz tells the New York Times that he doesn't blame the president for his business's problems -- and he thinks that they actually might be good for him.
"I almost welcome a slowdown," he tells the Times. "I can’t find enough workers."
Holtz also says that it's "myopically political" for his fellow manufacturers to blame the president's tariffs for any woes they might be experiencing.
But Mike Yoder, a Republican and a commissioner in Elkhart County, Indiana, tells the Times that Trump's trade wars have hurt the local economy -- and he's not confident that the president has a clear plan to dig himself out of the mess he's created.
"My perspective is our folks in Washington are not being honest," he tells the Times. "There is no plan. This is a very dangerous way to negotiate a trade deal. Folks like people in Elkhart are going to suffer."