As President Donald Trump declared in recent days, “If we don’t have tariffs, we don’t have national security.” While the globalists attack the president’s agenda, the CEO of Nvidia just declared that “we’re manufacturing the most advanced chips for AI here in the U.S. All of this started with President Trump wanting to re-industrialize the U.S. His tariffs were a pressing agent in making this possible.” The reality is that Trump’s targeted tariffs are strengthening U.S. national and economic security by creating millions of new U.S. manufacturing jobs.
During my time as the 29th White House chief of staff serving Trump, it became clear to me that national security issues are largely ignored and deemed purely economic until there is a crisis. During the final days of the first Trump administration, I saw firsthand how countries large and small, from China to Tunisia, exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to threaten our supply chains. Congress, even after multiple hearings, has failed to enact even one meaningful legislative reform, despite its own reports calling for more inclusive “made in America” supply chains. Fast-forward to today, and Trump’s 50% aluminum tariffs that are critical to protect U.S. national and economic security are being undermined by the deep state in Washington, D.C.
Thanks to anti-Trump bureaucrats and left-wing activists, domestic aluminum fabricators and extruders, who are truly the backbone of our great country, are feeling the pain. The aluminum extruders manufacture the parts for U.S. military hardware and critical infrastructure, in addition to everyday household items such as parts for windows, doors, appliances, and cars and trucks. This vital American industry is in danger of being hollowed out as importers cheat the system by undervaluing aluminum imports and falsely labelling products to avoid paying the president’s targeted aluminum tariff. If nothing changes, tens of thousands of good-paying aluminum extrusion jobs that make up the largest segment of America’s aluminum workforce will be wiped out.
In fact, in his State of the Union address, Trump stated, “If we don’t have a healthy domestic steel and aluminum industry, we don’t have national security.” The president’s tariffs are intended to cover the full value of the aluminum and steel articles imported into the United States. Sadly, the anti-Trump bureaucrats knowingly misinterpret the tariffs’ application to apply them only to the underlying raw material used to manufacture a steel or aluminum article. By doing so, importers are cheating and undercutting the tariffs on manufactured foreign aluminum products by paying duties based on the cost attributed only to the raw material rather than the actual value of the fully manufactured article, which is way higher. Deep state bureaucrats and importers will stop at nothing as part of their assault on Trump’s 50% aluminum tariff.
My home state of North Carolina and over 94,000 active military personnel should not be forced to rely on foreign aluminum parts to manufacture our fighter jets and equipment necessary to defend America’s homeland. Right now, aluminum importers are bringing in foreign extruded aluminum parts from Communist China and foreign countries that do not share our values. The importers cheat the system by giving a lowballed number on the customs form to the deep state bureaucrats to flood the zone with these foreign aluminum products. America’s critical supply chains that support our men and women in uniform are being undermined by an enemy from within who puts profit before patriotism.
To save our great country from unfair trade practices and importers who manipulate the valuation rules, the administration should impose the president’s tariff on aluminum by applying a specific dollar per pound tariff to the weight of the aluminum product entered. As President Ronald Reagan famously said, “We need to trust but verify.” This commonsense solution will allow our Customs and Border Protection agents to enforce more strongly and effectively the true intent of Trump’s 50% aluminum tariff.
In North Carolina, I saw firsthand what happened when American aluminum jobs were wiped out, and we must not allow the deep state to conspire with aluminum importers to sabotage the president’s efforts to rebuild domestic supply chains. As the peacemaker-in-chief works to end wars and bring about world peace, we need to keep a watchful eye on those who seek to undermine the president’s aluminum tariffs and take a wrecking ball to his America First trade agenda.
Right now, we are entering a new golden age for domestic manufacturing as Trump works to enforce tariff programs and strengthen U.S. supply chains. Now is the time to support the America First trade agenda, and working together, we will make our country great again.
Mark Meadows was the 29th White House chief of staff and a member of Congress for North Carolina’s 11th District from 2013 to 2020.