Stay with me, and I’ll explain these weird, weird facts:

Trump’s tariffs on foreign steel increased the amount of steel imported. Despite Trump’s tariffs, total steel imports are up 3.6% year to date compared to 2024 according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Trump’s tariffs have reduced American steel production. Adjusted year-to-date output through May 24 was 36,287,000 net tons, down 0.5 percent from the same period last year.

Trump’s tariffs on steel have raised prices on American goods from cars to computer mainframes. NUCOR, America’s largest steelmaker, raised its prices a stunning 38.5%, from $675/ton to $935/ton in the past year to March 2025. As steel is central to US production in all industries, these hikes are a big factor in inflation, adding 1.7% to prices throughout the economy, according to a Yale University study. This will cost the average American family $2,800 if the tariffs continue through the year.

And the biggest shocker: Trump’s tariffs are costing American steel jobs. Despite Trump’s punitive tariffs, steel employment in the USA has flatlined and massive layoffs have been announced. In March, with Trump imposing the highest tariffs in a century, Cleveland-Cliffs, one of America’s largest steel producers, announced over 1,200 steelworkers will be laid off in Michigan and Minnesota.

As I’ll explain, steel employment is diving, not despite the tariffs, but because of the tariffs.

I’m motivated to write by Donald Trump’s sickening PR stunt at a US Steel plant in Pennsylvania last week. I’m looking at Trump’s big belly and red tie posing with steelworkers in hard hats and coils of rolled steel around them. He’s not the first president to use steelworkers as a prop, but the first to do so while economically spitting in their faces.

. . .

Who profits?

Is the President crazy, or is there something else going on?

I notice that two of the largest owners of US Steel are Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group and vulture capitalist Dan Loeb’s Third Point. Both are big Trump donors. Is protecting steelworkers the priority — or enriching Trump’s rich buddies?

According to a report commissioned by the US Defense Department, with the in-your-face title, “Trump’s Tariffs Enrich Steel Barons at High Cost to US Manufacturers and Households,” Trump’s 25% steel tariffs in his first term added $270,000 to steel industry profits for each steel job “saved.”

. . .