> Thing is, manufacturing in America is up.

I'm looking at the first chart, "Manufacturing Sector: Real Sectoral Output for All Workers" [1]. It grew until Q2 2000, when it was at 97.2. In Q4 2024 it was at 98.6. And let's not ignore how almost all leading semiconductor manufacturing (which are in and required for nearly everything) has moved to East Asia.

[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OUTMS

This one also bad, stagnant last 15 years:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OPHMFG

Labor Productivity (Output per Hour) for All Workers

I didn't notice it before, but these are not per capita numbers. In 2000, the US population was 281 million, and in 2024 it was 340 million [1]. So per capita, manufacturing went from 97.2 in 2000, to 81.5 in 2024.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta...

The administration is probably aware of this and doesn't care. A huge portion of his base were rust belt voters who want what are essentially handouts, which trump intends to achieve by forcing the American consumer to pay $30/hour for el cheapo goods that could be made elsewhere and have no tangible security impact.

You're mistaking the rhetoric he uses to sell this idiocy to the rest of the country for a good-faith argument.

> and have no tangible security impact

I would not object to a tariff on shitty IoT devices, with the level determined by things like if the default password is "admin".

And America can't even export any off it because Trump managed to start a trade war with the rest of the world.

Apparently the US doesn't need allies anymore against China...

The joke is on them. We'll simply buy less stuff and make due more with what we have.

Yeah personally I buy very little and live pretty minimally so I'm not impacted much either way. I think most people's takes, however, are influenced by what is best for their pocketbooks short-term rather than for the nation long-term. And Trump is influenced by what's best for him short-term.

> we focus on the high-value stuff.

agreed but Trump just gutted the CHIPS act for no other reason than because it was enacted by Biden (the typical "undo everything the last prez did" just like Trump 1.0).

You can argue that Intel is a badly run company, not worth saving etc etc, but if want to save US manufacturing, then Intel, and its ecosystem, would be the first place to start. Otherwise, TSMC, Samsung and China (still playing second-fiddle but investing billions to catch up) will dominate. Certainly better than trying to keep coal plants open.

Ideology aside it's really hard to find _any_ rational thought behind these moves.