US manufacturing is showing signs of a revival. After six months of expansion, factory activity surged to its strongest in more than four years in July. So far this year, production has edged higher, around 30,000 new jobs have been created, and just this month industrial titans Siemens, Amazon and SK Hynix unveiled hefty investment plans.
For the Maga movement this is evidence that President Donald Trump’s protectionism-powered “renaissance” of American manufacturing is taking shape. Speaking at a General Motors plant in Michigan in July, Trump said that his “historic tariffs” were reviving the nation’s industrial heartlands.
But this claim is a rather disingenuous reading of the data. American manufacturing is resurgent despite the president’s protectionist measures, not because of them. Nor does the boom look much like the one he promised.