Joe Biden did unimaginable damage to our country. The rule of law, judicial fairness, White House transparency, equality, religious tolerance, sovereignty, and the Founding Fathers’ foundational tenet that government exists to serve the people all found their way to his America Last chopping block.
Globally, Biden’s policy of War Through Weakness paved the way for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the October 7, 2023 genocidal terror attack on Israel, emboldened Iran with money to fund terror proxies and its nuclear program, and convinced China that it could fly a spy balloon across our country without fear of reprisal.
Americans resoundingly approved Donald Trump as the only choice to restore our country to greatness. MAGA Republicans like me eagerly backed his campaign. We believed the promises, crossed our fingers, and prayed while the Democrat Party’s weaponized judiciary went on the attack, Biden’s FBI descended on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, and two assassins tried to take out our candidate.
We never lost faith and finally got what we wanted. Now Trump is destroying my company with his Make America Great tariffs that could put us out of business.
You can’t build anything with an avocado
When Trump threatened Mexico with tariffs, the media threatened Americans with catastrophe. Guacamole would be unaffordable. Life as we knew it was about to end.
That dumbed-down threat never materialized, but for those of us in the manufacturing industry another took its place.
Whose access to the American market is Trump protecting?
On April 2, 2025 the president declared a “National Emergency to Increase our Competitive Edge, Protect our Sovereignty, and Strengthen our National and Economic Security.” He called it Liberation Day. The Trump Golden Rule for Our Golden Age guaranteed that Access to the American market is a privilege, not a right.1
Those of us who backed a second Trump term were all in on Making America Great Again by resurrecting our global economic might from the wreckage of the Biden presidency. We cheered the February 11, 2025 announcement that Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports would be restored to 25%:
President Trump is taking action to protect America’s critical steel and aluminum industries, which have been harmed by unfair trade practices and global excess capacity.2
We shrugged off warnings about the impact on manufacturers and waited for the billions to flow into America’s coffers from the new tariff rates. It was all uphill from here, except for one detail the White House wasn’t saying much about that restricted market access for our manufacturers and the companies that supply them.
Trump Announces Reciprocal Tariffs*
Tariffs do not bring in money. They take it away from companies like mine.
For the past eighteen years I have worked for a company* that imports industrial machines from Europe and Asia. My company is the quintessential American small business. Like many in the machine tool industry we lean conservative. Anyone who has read my Civil Candor posts knows where I stand. I was 110% behind the MAGA agenda, donated to the Trump campaign, and proudly cast my vote to restore American greatness and end the radical neo-Democrat Party’s destruction of our country.
We were spared the chaos, violence, and fiscal insanity that characterized the Biden years. The Trump 2017 tax cuts were still in effect. We weren’t rolling in cash, but we got by. Life was good and at times even great.
No, tariff money is not flowing into America
I manage international shipping, so I am well versed in what we pay our government to import foreign goods. Before Trump’s tariffs we paid Customs duties, but they weren’t a big concern. They were practically nonexistent for our Asian imports and below 5% for our European partners.
The president is not being entirely honest when he boasts about the money flowing into America thanks to his tariffs. Tariffs don’t bring in money from other countries. They take it away from U.S. businesses that import goods and pay the duties. Tariffs are assessed as part of the Customs entry process and are not, as White House PR might lead you to think, charged back to foreign exporters.
When the president raised tariffs to 10% my company got hurt. We work in an industry with thin margins, so an additional 10% added to our import costs was devastating. Worse, there was no grandfathering of orders placed before the tariff rate hike. Instead, the new rates were based on the date goods enter the U.S. even if the order was placed months before, which is common in our business because it can take months to build a machine.
Our profits vanished. Instead of funding payrolls and building our business, our cash went to pay Trump’s new tariffs.
Simultaneously, sales dwindled. Manufacturers were hard hit by Trump’s levies on steel and aluminum. Their profits paid the price hike on raw materials. New equipment purchases were off the table for any but the largest, most well-heeled operations.
30% tariff will destroy small companies
Last week the Trump administration threatened a 30% tariff levy against the EU effective August 1, 2025 and a new rate of 25% on imports from Japan.3 Unless an agreement is reached, this will be game over for many small U.S. importers that can’t pass the tariff hikes to customers with enough additional margin to make a profit.
It’s not tariff revenue. It’s a crushing Trump tax.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett talked up tariff “revenue” on last Sunday’s news circuit:
Tariff revenue over the next ten years — which will help reduce the deficit and secure our entitlement programs — it’s $3 trillion, and consumers haven’t seen that.4
He promised good times and a Golden Age:
We’re trying to put America First … This is about America getting itself ready for the Golden Age by getting our house in order, by getting our tariff and trade policy and tax policy exactly where it needs to be for a Golden Age.5
Unless agreements to ameliorate the punishing Trump tariffs are reached and quickly, it’s unlikely that my company and many other small businesses serving the manufacturing industry will participate in that Golden Age if and when it gets here. I voted to Make America Great Again, not Greedy Again by taking away the profits from hard working small businesses already struggling to make a decent living.
*Author’s note: I opted to omit the identity of company to avoid any possible offense to those we do business with.
Sources
1“Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Declares National Emergency to Increase our Competitive Edge, Protect our Sovereignty, and Strengthen our National and Economic Security.” The White House. April 2, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-declares-national-emergency-to-increase-our-competitive-edge-protect-our-sovereignty-and-strengthen-our-national-and-economic-security/, retrieved July 13, 2025.
2“Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restores Section 232 Tariffs.” The White House. February 11, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-restores-section-232-tariffs/, retrieved July 13, 2025.
3“Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Continues Enforcement of Reciprocal Tariffs and Announces New Tariff Rates.” The White House. July 7, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-continues-enforcement-of-reciprocal-tariffs-and-announces-new-tariff-rates/, retrieved July 12, 2025.
4“SUNDAY SHOWS: Trump Administration is Putting Americans First.” The White House. July 13, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/sunday-shows-trump-administration-is-putting-americans-first/, retrieved July 14, 2025.
5Ibid.
*Image: “Liberation Day: President Trump at the Make America Wealthy Again Event – April 2, 2025.” Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/54427036491/in/album-72177720324847898 on July 15 2025.
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