Donald Trump’s pledge to unleash a ‘golden age’ of US manufacturing sputters

{"text":[[{"start":11.6,"text":"Donald Trump’s pledge to unleash a “golden age” for US manufacturing is sputtering as corporate commitments to build factories fail to translate into construction. "}],[{"start":21.7,"text":"US private spending on manufacturing construction fell in April to $15.2bn, down about 16 per cent since Trump’s second term began, while factory employment has fallen by 77,000 jobs over the same period, according to official data. "}],[{"start":35.75,"text":"The decline in spending on building plants comes despite 84 companies announcing more than $900bn in investments to expand US manufacturing since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, according to FT calculations. "}],[{"start":51.3,"text":"The divergence underscores how Trump has struggled to usher in a domestic manufacturing boom — one of his flagship initiatives — despite tariffs and pressure on businesses to invest in American factories. "}],[{"start":63,"text":"“Announcements are what people say they’re going to do, but dollars spent is what’s actually happening,” said Didi Caldwell, chief executive of Global Location Strategies, which helps companies identify factory sites. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":76.85,"text":"“From where we’re standing, we are not seeing signs of a manufacturing renaissance in the US.”"}],[{"start":82.19999999999999,"text":"White House spokesperson Kush Desai said: “President Trump pledged to revive American industry, and the Trump administration is delivering with a proven economic agenda of targeted tariffs, rapid deregulation and investment-friendly tax cuts.” "}],[{"start":96.54999999999998,"text":"He pointed to data showing rising industrial output and orders for core capital goods — a widely watched proxy for business investment."}],[{"start":104.99999999999999,"text":"But Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, argued that while manufacturing output had grown modestly in early 2026, there were few signs of a reversal of manufacturing jobs being lost to automation and foreign competition. "}],[{"start":119.14999999999999,"text":"Recent increases in US manufacturing output appeared to be driven less by confidence than by fears over rising prices and domestic and geopolitical uncertainty, added Chris Williamson, S&P Global’s chief business economist. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":133.1,"text":"“Companies are telling us that a lot of this growth is stock building because they’re worried about supply shortages and prices rising further as the Iran conflict continues,” said Williamson, noting similar upticks during periods of anxiety over pandemic-era disruptions and Trump’s so-called liberation day tariffs in April 2025. "}],[{"start":154.15,"text":"“It isn’t reflecting the true health of the manufacturing economy, and it’s more worrying than it is encouraging.”"}],[{"start":160.9,"text":"Katie Farmer, chief executive of railroad giant BNSF, told the FT she had “certainly seen a revival” in “certain commodity areas”, including steel, but that “the flip side of that is that in the other industrial segments, we’ve really seen a plateau”."}],[{"start":175.6,"text":"“Because of some of the other uncertainty that exists in the world, and some of the uncertainty that frankly exists with the tariffs, I do think it’s keeping some of that capital on the sidelines,” said Farmer, adding that “we have not seen a significant resurgence in manufacturing capacity to this point”."}],[{"start":192.75,"text":"The mixed signals are visible in the upper Midwest and other stretches of the historic US rustbelt, despite Trump’s promise that “we will supercharge our domestic industrial base” and kick off a “golden age of America”. "}],[{"start":205.7,"text":"In Indiana, which has the highest proportion of manufacturing jobs in the country, new projects are moving ahead and tariffs have helped some producers. But local executives describe a recovery that is uneven, incremental and years in the making — not the sudden factory boom promised by the White House."}],[{"start":223.04999999999998,"text":"Just outside the city of Warsaw in north-eastern Indiana, Dan Tasiemski oversees the conversion of an old printing works into a plant to build low-cost electric vehicles."}],[{"start":235.14999999999998,"text":"Tasiemski, head of manufacturing engineering at Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Automotive, is planning to begin commercial production of a stripped-down, sub-$30,000 pick-up truck at the Warsaw plant later this year."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

• Exterior view of the Slate factory with a person walking in front of the entrance, seen on a clear day.
• Dan Tasiemski poses outside the Slate factory, wearing a black Slate Automotive shirt and standing by large windows.

"}],[{"start":249.04999999999998,"text":"Tasiemski, who has helped build and operate plants for Tesla, Boeing and Taiwanese iPhone assembler Foxconn, noted that when the printing works closed down a few years ago, it cost the town 2,000 jobs. "}],[{"start":261.95,"text":"“That’s got to hurt,” he said. “But there’s a great talent pool here, and everything you need to build for automotive.”"}],[{"start":269.2,"text":"In nearby Fort Wayne, Indiana’s second-largest city, businesspeople point to an improving industrial base that now spans auto parts, metals, orthopaedics and military satellites. It has taken decades to rebuild after General Electric and International Harvester pulled back from the area in the 1980s because of offshoring and industry consolidation."}],[{"start":291.75,"text":"“We’ve built up the momentum and it’s continued, but it’s not this mushroom cloud of explosive growth,” said John Urbahns, chief executive of the Greater Fort Wayne Inc business group."}],[{"start":301.4,"text":"Chuck Hughes, head of the chamber of commerce in Gary, Indiana, told the FT the industrial city on the southern shore of Lake Michigan had endured “really challenging times” as a result of the near collapse of the American steel industry in the 1970s and 1980s."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

• Chuck Hughes poses in his office, wearing a blue suit and tie, with award plaques displayed on the wall behind him.
• Dalton Foundries building exterior with multiple large industrial structures and an American flag in front, seen from the parking lot.

"}],[{"start":317.95,"text":"Home to US Steel’s largest facility, the city has a population that has almost halved since the 1970s, while the number of people employed at the Gary Works has dropped from a peak of 30,000 to less than 5,000 today. According to Hughes, the local Hard Rock Casino is now “at least as important” to the city’s economy as the steelworks."}],[{"start":339.05,"text":"In April, US Steel announced a plan to invest up to $20mn to restart its tin mill at the Gary Works, creating 225 jobs — a move placed at the top of the White House’s list of achievements when it proclaimed that “American manufacturing is roaring back”."}],[{"start":355.55,"text":"Timna Tanners, a metals and mining analyst at Wells Fargo, said that without Trump’s high tariffs on the metal, the US steel industry would have been in a “world of hurt” and engaged in a “knife fight” with cheap foreign imports."}],[{"start":369.2,"text":"The tariffs meant that US Steel would likely recoup its investment in the Gary Works tin mill even if it did not survive a change of president in 2028, she added, noting that without the levies it was likely that at least one of the steelworks’ four blast furnaces would have been shut down."}],[{"start":386.65,"text":"But Swonk said that with modern manufacturing facilities employing far fewer workers due to automation, no single facility could come close to compensating for the loss of tens of thousands of jobs over decades. "}],[{"start":400,"text":"“There is just no turning the dial back to the 1950s or the 1970s,” she said."}],[{"start":413.55,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780556995_2975.mp3"}