It’s official. It looks like 2024 is going to be a rematch of the 2020 elections with Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden.

There are a lot of people who cringe at the thought of another year of political brawls. We know we can expect quite a lot of mudslinging and drama over the next few months. But it’s important to keep in mind the more important issues. There is a lot of serious business that is really going on below the popular and public narrative.

It’s critical to understand what is currently going on in the economy and how this election is going to impact business and the manufacturing sector.

While it is clear that Donald Trump is a polarizing figure, there is a clear connection between Trump’s policies and activity in the American business sector. We can look at some of the actions taken by both presidents to help inform what might happen in the next administration. It is typical to hear nothing more than hollow promises from political leaders, but it is rare to hear them talking about manufacturing and industry when they are not campaigning. But to actually see action being taken to protect US industry was unexpected.

In March of 2018, Donald Trump signed into law a tariff of steel and aluminum, stating that “We have to protect our steel and aluminum industries.” To us in the manufacturing industry, it was really refreshing to hear a political figure taking action to help us for a change.

This action was not without its critics, but the tariff of 25% on steel from overseas is proactively nothing when compared to the tariffs imposed on US goods when imported into other countries. This action was seen as shocking and dangerous to people who are not in the industry, but was seen as obvious and more than reasonable to industry professionals who regularly export overseas.

As was expected, there was a short time of adjustment, but before long the industry saw a tremendous boom. Prices went up a little, but demand for US steel went up a lot more. The increase more than covered the additional cost. And because more people were using better steel, our costs to manufacture steel tooling actually came down domestically in many instances.