American Manufacturing Business Owner: ‘Thank You Mr. President’ for ‘Enough is Enough’ Attitude on Trade

Zach Mottl, the owner of American manufacturing company Atlas Tool Works in Lyons, Illinois, is thanking President Trump for his recent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.

In an interview with Fox Business, Mottl praised Trump’s tariffs on foreign countries and their imported steel and aluminum, saying the economic nationalist approach to trade should have been implemented years ago to help American businesses and workers.

Mottl said:

Well, it will certainly be a better product and it should be made in the U.S. because its not that we’re not competitive, it’s that other countries are breaking the rules, breaking their promises and quite frankly cheating, and so the president, he’s taking a tough approach and I say: Thank you Mr. President for your ‘Enough is enough’ approach on trade. This is what we’ve needed. For 23 years we’ve seen other countries, we didn’t start a trade war, it’s been going on for a long time and we’re just finally engaging and trying to defend ourselves here. [Emphasis added]

Mottl also crushed arguments often made by free traders that Trump’s tariffs will cause the price of goods to skyrocket,

In terms of our prices going up, I don’t really believe that either. I think you’re already seeing … big companies are making a lot of money off the U.S. consumer. I think you might see the U.S. consumer instead have a better job and see some wage growth. You talked about all those good about the job growth, and we certainly have low unemployment, but the quality of the jobs, you’ve got people working in low wage, low hours, not full time jobs working multiple jobs. I think you’ll see better jobs and you’ll see American wealth come back to the U.S. and the middle class grow again, which I know is what the president is counting on and I think he’s right. [Emphasis added]

Since 2001, free trade with China has cost millions of Americans their jobs. Between 2001 and 2015, about 3.4 million U.S. jobs were lost due to the country’s trade deficit with China, as Breitbart News reported.

Of the 3.4 million U.S. jobs lost in that time period, about 2.6 million were lost in the crippled manufacturing industry, making up about three-fourths of the loss of jobs from the U.S.-Chinese trade deficit.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.