Aluminum Tariffs

Letter to the Editor

Here’s a Letter to the Editor I sent the WSJ earlier this month:

Dear Editor.

Mr. Moore writes powerfully about the harmful effects of aluminum tariffs on, ironically enough, the domestic aluminum sector and manufacturing writ large (”Trump’s Tariffs on Aluminum Kill U.S. Factory Jobs”, Commentary, 9/17/25). During the first Trump administration, the steel and aluminum tariffs were associated with saving about 1,000 jobs in the steel and aluminum producing sectors but a loss of about 75,000 jobs in the steel and aluminum using sector, i.e. manufacturing. The culprit? Higher prices for steel and aluminum.

This time around, however, users of steel and aluminum have had time to adjust their production processes and use less material. Four taller aluminum cans, for example, use far less aluminum than six regular sized cans. Today, aluminum manufacturers produce just over half of what they produced when Trump first took office in 2017. Over that same timespan, aluminum producers are facing 64.2% higher costs of production (iron and steel producer costs are up 57.6%). Making it more expensive to produce these critical materials domestically, not less, is not a recipe for success or a resurgence in the manufacturing sector. It is a recipe for disaster.

The truth is that the American manufacturing worker does not need protection. They need to be unleashed on the world. Lowering taxes, cutting regulation, expediting approval processes, and freeing up federal lands are all clear pathways to success. If those sound familiar, it’s because this is exactly what Reagan did in the 80s and what President Trump promised to do in his Joint Address to Congress earlier this year.