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Businesses Grapple With Trump’s Trade War (Elections Have Consequences)

Businesses Grapple With Trump’s Trade War (Elections Have Consequences)

Last updated on: July 3, 2018 at 9:31 am by Susan Wright

Businesses Grapple With Trump’s Trade War (Elections Have Consequences) 2018-07-03T09:31:37-04:00 Susan Wright

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What does it look like to vote against your own self-interests, in its most raw, pure form?

For that, you will find no more perfect example than what’s going on in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and at the Mid Continent Nail Factory.

Mid Continent is the largest nail factory in the United States, and unfortunately, they’re in trouble. Something has come along and upset the apple cart of these red-white-and-blue collar, all-American workers.

I’d call it, bad policy.

In June, the factory, which boasts 500 jobs, saw 60 employees shuttled off to the unemployment line, and if things don’t change, it may be the rest of them, soon.

They’re not winning. They’re not feeling the MAGA spirit that so many of them had before the 2016 election.

Chris Pratt, the operations manager of the factory reports that when President Trump’s tariffs on aluminum and steel hit on June 1, they saw a fifty percent drop in orders for their nails.

The source of the raw materials for their nails is Mexico and Trump has levied a 25 percent tariff on those materials.

From NBC News:

“The economy is thriving, the home building business is thriving — so we should be doing well in turn,” Pratt told NBC News. “But it’s like he’s turned the lights off now. And it’s all because of the tariffs.”

I mean, it’s not like he wasn’t warned.

Mid Continent attempted to right the shortfall brought about by the tariffs by doubling the prices on their products. A large portion of their customers balked, and took their business to foreign markets, like Taiwan or China, where they can still get nails at a cheaper price.

Real people, with real lives are being affected by Trump’s inability to understand the destructive nature of trade wars on a nation’s economy.

Would someone please get Trump a pop-up book on Smoot-Hawley?

“A lot of people would be in trouble,” said Diane Brogdon, who has worked on the assembly line at the factory for 12 years. “I don’t have a clue where we would turn for another job. It’s always been a reliable job, and it’s the reason I have the house I just bought and that I can support my daughters and two grandchildren.”

Mid Continent also makes wire coil, plastic strip and, until two weeks ago, paper tape strip nails. Just seven months after opening its new paper tape plant, the machines now stand idle, shutting down alongside the layoffs. Next door, a warehouse stands full of boxes of nails. There are no interested buyers.

I’ve worked factory jobs before. I know what it means to have a warehouse full of unpurchased products and machines sitting idle. It’s never a good thing.

Never.

Meanwhile, Trump is oblivious to the pain he’s inflicting with his economic temper tantrum.

Just a few miles away from Mid Continent is SEMO Boxing. They provide most of the boxes for Mid Continent’s nails. Guess what they’ve had to do?

That’s right. They’re laying off people, as well, since Mid Continent isn’t selling or shipping as much, they don’t have the same need for SEMO’s boxes.

Our industries are so interconnected. It’s a domino effect, started by Donald Trump’s tariffs.

So the lady working the assembly line at Mid Continent I just mentioned, she’s a Trump supporter. Has she changed her mind?

Brogdon voted for Trump and hopes the president will get a better deal for the American worker. But she noted, “He wants to make America great, but he has to remember that we have jobs here that we need to keep. He’s fighting in Washington D.C. for us, but we’re fighting just to be able to live here in Poplar Bluff.”

I guess she hasn’t. Even as she sees the house burning down around her.

Jimmie Coffer is another Trump-loving employee with Mid Continent, who has worked there for five years.

“I come here every day and I do what I love,” he said. “These people here are my brothers and sisters.”

Although Coffer is fearful that his own job and those of his co-workers could all be at risk, he continues to support the Trump administration’s efforts.

“I know what affects me, and the tariffs are hurting me on a daily basis — I’d like to see relief,” Coffer told NBC News. “I still have faith in the president. I believe he knows what he’s doing and can turn everything around for us.”

So the buzzards are circling and he’s still looking for a silver lining.

I guess there’s something to be said for optimism.

We’ve heard similar reports from employees of Harley-Davidson, who are seeing their jobs sent out of the country because of Trump’s tariffs. They’re heading for the bread line, but if Trump tells them handouts are fine, then he knows better than they do what’s good for them, apparently.

Mid Continent’s operations manager, the previously mentioned Chris Pratt, summed it up:

Pratt’s message to the administration: “Save our jobs. Give us the exclusions we’ve applied for. Put us back to work. Save Poplar Bluff jobs, and in turn, American jobs.”

In other words, make exceptions for those who support Trump, but stab every other working American through the heart with those destructive, job-killing tariffs?

Sorry, Chris. Elections have consequences. You wanted Trump, you get Trump, and every horrific, ill-informed policy he pushes through.

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