After Trump imposed
Many support trade goal despite Mo. job cuts over steel tariff
a 25 percent tariff on the steel a Missouri company imports from Mexico, layoffs came to struggling Poplar Bluff. Most of its citizens, though, still back the president.
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — Jimmie Coffer, a machine programmer at the nation’s largest nail-making plant, voted for Donald Trump partly because he was confident he would bring manufacturing jobs back to America.
So the 39-year-old factory worker was shocked when 60 of his co-workers were laid off after the Trump administration imposed a 25 percent tariff on the steel his company imports from Mexico. Now, as his bosses cut back hours and warn they may have to let 200 more workers go in the coming weeks, he worries he may lose his job as a result of the president’s policies.
But Coffer is still gung-ho about Trump.
“I support him 100 percent,” he said. “In fact, I’d like to shake his hand. He’s doing a great job.”
Across Poplar Bluff, a struggling town of 17,000 in southeast Missouri, many residents are reluctant to criticize Trump as they grapple with the prospect that their community could be one of casualties of the trade war.
“Most workers are behind Trump, no matter what,” said Diane Brogdon, 54, a machine operator who has worked for the company for 12 years.
Trump won 79 percent of the vote in Butler County and, while many were surprised to discover the tariffs are hurting their town, they still believe Trump is on the right track and support his goal of pouring life back into manufacturing communities — even if they end up losers.
“It’s just one big mess,” said Brogdon, who fears she may struggle to keep the home she bought a few months ago. “He’s looking at the big picture, and I understand that. But he’s got to stop and look at the small towns around here that are really going to get hurt.”
For Mid Continent Steel and Wire, which does business as Mid Continent Nail Corp., the crisis began June 1 when the Trump administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union as part of its strategy of boosting American manufacturers.
Founded in 1987 by two local brothers and taken over in 2012 by a Mexican company, Mid Continent imports 70 percent of its steel from Mexico. When the tariffs forced the company to raise prices 19 percent to cover higher costs, orders plummeted. Within two weeks, it had idled one of its production plants and laid off dozens of contract workers.
“You would think as long as houses are being built and pallets are being made we would be secure,” said Sean Hughey, 51, a machine shop supervisor who has worked for the company for eight years. “All of sudden, it just came to a crashing halt.”
Hughey continues to back Trump, even as he worries that if the company shuts down, he will not be able to make his $800 monthly mortgage or come up with $700 a month for payments on his Dodge pickup, Chrysler sedan and Harley-Davidson Street Fighter.
“I feel like maybe the tariff policy might have been just a tad misguided, you know?” he said. “Maybe they didn’t think it through.”
As a stream of workers stopped at the Munch-NPump gas station near the nail plant recently to pick up sodas, cigarettes and sausage-and-cheese biscuits, they said supervisors had told them not to talk to the media.
Yet there is fear that hundreds of workers could be laid off, a potentially staggering blow to a town where a quarter of the population lives in poverty and the median household income is $31,675.
Others blamed the firm for importing steel from Mexico.
“Mass layoffs? I don’t believe it’s going to happen,” said Randy Wade, 42, a supervisor for a local vending company, rolling his eyes as he filled a cup with Coca-Cola at the soda fountain.
“If they’re going to do business in Mexico, they kind of deserve it,” he added. “They need to deal with Americans.”
Some companies across the country have celebrated the tariffs — U.S. Steel has announced plans to reopen two blast furnaces in Illinois — but trade experts say that overall, the measures are likely to bring more job losses than gains.
The Tax Foundation, an independent nonprofit tax policy group, estimates 48,500 jobs will be lost as a result of the tariffs imposed on imports of steel, aluminum, washing machines, solar panels and $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.
If Trump presses ahead with further tariffs, and other nations retaliate, it predicts 342,000 jobs could be lost.
Asked whether she would rethink her support for Trump if she lost her job, Brogdon said probably not. The tariffs ultimately would be good for the nation — even if it left her unemployed.
“Overall, he’s done good,” she said. “I’m not going to be selfish just because of me.”