Trumpian varieties are unanimous: America needs factories. The president describes how employees have “watched in anguish as international leaders have stolen our jobs, international cheaters have ransacked our factories and international scavengers have torn aside our as soon as stunning American dream”. Peter Navarro, his commerce adviser, says that tariffs will “refill all the half-empty factories”. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, gives probably the most cartoonish pitch of all: “The military of thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones—that form of factor goes to come back to America.”
