The ‘Golden Age’ of US Manufacturing Stumbles Out of the Gate
Trump says he wants to restore the sector to greatness. For now, his policies are hurting.
Disruption.
Photographer: Emily Elconin/Bloomberg
President Donald Trump intends to make the US a “manufacturing nation once again,” as he put it in his inaugural address, and he’s thrown up some of the highest import duties in a century ostensibly to help do so. Unfortunately, the available data generally suggest that we’re moving in the wrong direction.
A Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia report on Thursday showed that manufacturing business conditions plunged this month, echoing another report on factory activity in New York state. The Philadelphia Fed’s new orders measure fell to the lowest since 2020, and manufacturers expected to pay higher prices over the coming months. Taken together with an April survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bloomberg Economics predicts that the closely-watched ISM manufacturing purchasing managers PMI — a gauge of the sector’s nationwide health — will slide deeper into contraction when it’s released on May 1. The reports are among the best evidence we have on the state of the sector since the April 2 “Liberation Day” tariffs were unveiled.