Cato Institute economist Scott Lincicome posts some charts busting White House propaganda about tariffs and manufacturing. Of particular interest is Lincicome’s finding that since November 2024 industrial production, still down from 2017 levels, surged to its highest level after the Supreme Court cancelled Trump’s Liberation Day round of illegal tariffs in February:
Lincicome also finds that real private spending on factory construction peaked in fall 2024 and has declined ever since. Tariffs did nothing to interrupt or temper that decline:
No boost in factory construction or output, no boost in factory jobs, no progress on closing the trade deficit—Trump’s tariffs haven’t delivered on any of his promises to American manufacturing or the American people.
Tariffs can only work as protectionism if there is domestic manufacturing to protect. Much of that ship has sailed for the US.