Big Take Podcast
They Voted for Trump. His Tariffs Took Down Their Family-Owned Sawmill
On today’s Big Take podcast: How Trump’s trade war led to the closure of a family-run sawmill in North Carolina.
Wilson Jones at the shuttered Mackeys Ferry Sawmill in Roper, North Carolina.
Photographer: Rachael Lewis-Krisky/Bloomberg
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For years, Mackeys Ferry Sawmill in North Carolina relied on exporting its goods to China and Vietnam after a dip in domestic demand for high-quality hardwood. But President Donald Trump’s trade war with China dealt a blow that the mill’s owners say they couldn’t come back from. In July, just months after the president announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, they decided to shut it down.