'Trump's trade moves are like an intense whack-a-mole game'

COMPANIES that rely on steel and aluminium imports, such as Independent Can Co. in Maryland, which manufactures decorative tins, are halting investments, raising prices, and reconsidering their product lines altogether.

- Esther Krakue

At Drill Rod & Tool Steels in Illinois, the director of supply chain management Chad Bartusek now faces nearly double the cost in tariffs for importing Austrian-made steel rods the US simply doesn’t produce. That’s not national security. That’s economic masochism.

In a now-familiar pattern, the markets are skittish, the economists are alarmed, and Trump is playing to the gallery.

A 2020 analysis found his first-term tariffs created roughly 1,000 steel jobs at the cost of 75,000 jobs elsewhere.

Erica York of the Tax Foundation expects this new round of tariffs to be even more destructive, especially since intermediate inputs like steel are embedded in everything from cars to skyscrapers.

It’s a textbook example of policy that scores political points while undermining productivity and employment.