Breaking: Trump gets the economic news he's dreaded - Brian Tyler Cohen

Transcript:

well here we are again we've got brand
new data out today showing that US
manufacturing has contracted for the
second consecutive month in April with
the ISM manufacturing index dropping
from 49 to 48.7 and remember anything
below 50 means the sector is shrinking
not growing in total 41% of
manufacturing GDP contracted in April
which tells you everything you need to
know about the state of Donald Trump's
promised manufacturing boom and if this
sounds familiar it's because we've been
here before this is Donald Trump's
second presidency his second opportunity
to deliver on manufacturing promises and
his second failure to live up to his
word but instead of admitting reality
Trump and his team are still out here
talking about a new golden age we're
approaching the dawn of America's golden
age it's going to be a golden age for
America we have things that nobody else
has we have more natural resources we
have number one nobody knew that until I
came along i made us number one we're
number three i made us number one in uh
and in a very short period of time in
drilling there's never been anything
like what's happened in the list since
we won the
election couple of months since we won
the election the whole perception of the
whole world is different let me be
crystal clear about what is actually
happening here the manufacturing sector
is experiencing stagflation weak demand
and price pressures now accompanied by
evidence of production declines that's
not a golden age that is an economic
nightmare but Trump wants you to believe
that this is all part of some
grandmaster plan the White House put out
a fact sheet claiming that studies have
repeatedly shown that Trump's tariffs in
the first term strengthened the US
economy and led to significant reshoring
in manufacturing uh really because the
actual numbers tell a completely
different story according to Economic
Policy Institute senior economist Robert
E scott nearly 1,800 factories have
disappeared under Trump between 2016 and
2018 that's not reshoring that is the
exact opposite in fact you don't have to
look further than Trump's Foxcon debacle
remember when he announced a $10 billion
investment by Foxcon for a manufacturing
facility that would create 13,000 new
jobs by 2021 Foxcon abandoned most of
its plans and never delivered on the
promise so much for Trump being this
master dealmaker even Biden chided Trump
for his failure saying this our
country's proud manufacturing legacy
well we had infrastructure day every
week every week for four years didn't
build a damn
thing he administration promised a10
billion dollar investment by Foxcom to
build new manufacturing complex create
13,000 new jobs in fact he came here
with your senator Ron Johnson literally
holding a golden shovel promising to
build the eighth wonder of the
world are you kidding
me look what happened
they dug a
hole with those golden shovels and then
they fell into
it look they didn't shovel other dirt
they did shovel some dirt 100 homes were
both were bulldozed they wasted hundreds
of millions of dollars your state and
local tax dollars to promise a project
that never happened foxcon turned out to
be just that a con
go figure but here's the really absurd
part we just had a manufacturing boom
under Joe Biden dean Baker the economist
and co-founder of the Center for
Economic and Policy Research said "What
were spending building factories
adjusted for inflation in 2024 was twice
what it was in 2019 we've never seen a
boom like that in the post-war era."
According to Fred total manufacturing
construction spending topped $234
billion as of March 2025 in other words
Biden delivered an actual manufacturing
construction boom that was unprecedented
in the post-war era and Trump's response
is to implement policies that are
immediately causing manufacturing to
contract that's like being handed a
winning lottery ticket and then lighting
it on fire because you think you can do
better only with no cogent plan to
actually do it and the business
community understands that when you dig
one inch beneath the surface Trump's
strategy is completely baseless
according to the National Association of
Manufacturers outlook survey there was a
decrease in positive outlook among
manufacturers broad-based concerns over
trade uncertainties and rising input
costs and slowing capital investments in
the first quarter of this year ceos too
across the industries are concerned with
Trump's economic agenda according to the
latest what CEOs talk about report
mentions of the keyword tariff during
earnings calls jumped 190% while
mentions of uncertainty climbed 49% and
hiring freeze mentions skyrocketed
286% listen to what Alcoa CEO Bill Opper
said it's very hard to make an
investment decision even on something
like a restart without knowing how long
the tariffs will last and General Motors
CFO Paul Jacobson warned "As much as the
market is pricing in a big impact of
tariffs and lost profitability think
about a world where on top of that we're
spending billions of capital billions of
dollars in capital and then it ends."
Right that's not confidence in Trump's
golden age that is fear about economic
chaos all created by Trump himself but
let's be honest about what Trump's real
strategy is here this isn't about
actually delivering results it is about
creating a narrative that sounds good to
his base while the economy suffers the
consequences trump continues to promise
that his tariff regime will usher in a
new golden age for American workers with
an explosion of high-paying
manufacturing jobs but more expensive
imports guarantee the supposed
manufacturing renaissance will turn out
to be fool's gold for American workers
and that's exactly what we're seeing
play out in real time we know it doesn't
work and yet here we are again watching
manufacturing contract while Trump gives
speeches about golden ages this is what
happens when you elect somebody who
confuses slogans with strategy make
America Great Again and Golden Age sound
great on paper but they are not economic
policies they are marketing gimmicks
designed to distract from the fact that
Trump has no idea how to actually
improve manufacturing competitiveness in
a global economy again the tragic part
is that we had a path forward with
Biden's approach investing in
infrastructure semiconductor
manufacturing through the chips act
clean energy production through the
inflation reduction act all of that was
actually working according to the White
House there had been over $860 billion
in private commitments made for
manufacturing projects since Biden took
office but Trump wants to repeal all of
that solely because he doesn't like that
Joe Biden's successes eclipsed his and
his priority is protecting not the US
economy but his own fragile ego the
bottom line is this trump has now had
two opportunities to deliver on
manufacturing his first term saw nearly
1,800 factories disappear and his second
term is off to an even worse start with
manufacturing contracting for multiple
months in a row at what point do we stop
pretending that Donald Trump's promises
have any connection to reality american
workers deserve better than empty
slogans and failed policies they deserve
leaders who understand that global
competitiveness comes from innovation
investment and smart policy not from
trade wars that make American
manufacturers less competitive and
American consumers poorer but as long as
Donald Trump keeps treating economic
policy like a reality TV show we're
going to keep getting reality TV results
lots of drama lots of promises and very
little actual success the only thing
golden about Trump's manufacturing
policy is the opportunity that he's
creating for other countries to eat our
lunch while we're busy shooting
ourselves in the foot.