The U.S. steel industry saw a bit of a boom after Donald Trump imposed tariffs on imported steel from China last year. It was only last week when Trump made this claim at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“I don’t want to be overly crude. Your business was dead. And I put a little thing called a 25% tariff on all of the dump steel all over the country, and now your business is thriving.” – Donald Trump
Thriving? Let’s look at the numbers. U.S. Steel announced layoffs of hundreds of workers at a plant in Michigan. The move is said to be temporary but workers will be off the job for at least six months.
U.S. Steel’s stock price is off 73% since March of 2018.
Domestic steel prices have fallen 37% since Trump announced the tariffs.