For eight years, Whirlpool begged the Obama-Biden administration who did nothing to protect American workers from the flagrant dumping of foreign washers, dryers into America. But your cries for help fell on deaf ears. You didn’t see any action. They didn’t act, they didn’t care, and they never will…. In defending your jobs here at Whirlpool, I was doing exactly what I promised in June, 2016.
—Trump Jobs Plan Speech, Whirlpool Corporation, August 6, 202024
In the early 1980s, as I was in the midst of my PhD studies in economics at Harvard University, temptation reared its seductive head. Professor Murray Weidenbaum of Washington University in St. Louis invited me to join him as a speechwriter in the White House where he had taken a position as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
I had come to Murray’s attention because of the work I had done on a series of regulatory failures afflicting the electric utility industry, and to say that I was intrigued, flattered, and yes, tempted by the offer would be to understate the obvious. Yet I would decline that offer because I feared that if I interrupted my doctoral studies, I might never make it back to the banks of the Charles River to finish my PhD thesis.
I tell you this story because once I got to the White House—perhaps because of that memory lingering in my mind—I began to develop a hankering to have at least some hand in the Boss’s speeches. In the months leading up to the 2020 election, that hankering was in full bloom as it seemed to me that the Boss’s rally speeches were in urgent need of a MAGA reboot. To that end, I hatched a plot to pitch directly to the president a major policy address on the theme of American manufacturing.
An Homage to Pittsburgh
Now I know that a Trump manufacturing speech doesn’t sound all that original. But my special sauce in this venture was to make that major address an homage to the epic 2016 Pittsburgh Jobs Plan speech and its seven major campaign promises that we talked about in chapter four.
My idea for this new 2020 speech was to first remind folks how we had kept those promises and then unveil six new ones, each specifically aimed at wooing the Blue Wall states and thereby keeping them in the Trump column in 2020. And here was the best part of the plan I would hatch:
The Boss would deliver this major policy address at a booming Whirlpool washing machine factory smack dab in the middle of the Rust Belt. This was a phoenix that had risen from the ashes of unfair trade by way of some big beautiful tariffs President Trump had slapped on the trade cheaters—and what better way to showcase our America First trade policy than at Whirlpool.
The battle over the Whirlpool tariffs had been one of my biggest fights early in the 2017 administration with the Gary Cohn-Steve Mnuchin-Rob Porter globalist faction of the West Wing. It had all started with a visit to my office by Sarah Bovim, a quintessential Washington, DC, lobbyist Swamp Creature.
Petite, attractive, intense, with a diamond ring on her hand almost as big as she is, Sarah had reached out to ask for my help in fending off a sustained mercantilist attack from both the Chinese and the Koreans. My only rule in listening to such Swamp Creatures was whether my help would create more jobs for blue collar Americans.
If not, I would send them briskly and abruptly on their way. But if the answer was yes—and this was the culture of my small office—I would move on the request in quintessential Trump Time, which is to say, as quickly as possible.
The Whirlpool case is fascinating because it illustrates just how difficult it is for American manufacturers to defend their factories and workers within the loose rules not just of the World Trade Organization, but also of the primary federal agency involved in the adjudication of trade disputes, the United States International Trade Commission (ITC).
Now you might think that a federal agency like the ITC would lean towards the side of American workers when adjudicating the many cases that come before it. But think again as this is yet another American agency that has been at least partly captured by American multinational companies that love to offshore American jobs.
This is an agency captured, too, oftentimes, by well-heeled foreign manufacturers. They assiduously leverage the large armies of American-born lobbyists camped along DC’s infamous K Street corridor, which is less than a mile from the White House and a cannon shot from Capitol Hill.
My broader point here is that it is not always easy for companies like Whirlpool, which is a quintessential domestic manufacturer, to beat back trade cheaters even in the American court system.
In the Whirlpool case, its difficulties began when two of its Korean competitors—LG and Samsung—began dumping large quantities of subsidized washing machines into American markets from South Korea and Mexico. Whirlpool responded by filing its first anti-dumping case—and actually won that case in 2013. But here’s the plot twist:
While the mercantilist Koreans were supposed to ante up countervailing duties per the court’s ruling, both LG and Samsung chose to evade such duties. They did so by moving their production to Communist China in a scurrilous practice known as “country-hopping."
Beaten but unbowed, Whirlpool filed a second case, and in 2017, they were rewarded with a new anti-dumping order against LG and Samsung for the Made in Communist China washers. However, instead of paying the new tariffs, the Koreans just country-hopped again, moving their production to Vietnam and Thailand.
When I met with Sarah and her team, she was beside herself and Whirlpool’s CEO Marc Bitzer was at his wit’s end. This country-hopping and serial dumping was seemingly impossible to stop.
A Safeguard Solution
After more than considerable thought about Whirlpool’s dilemma, my advice to the company was to file a different kind of case, a so-called “safeguard case.” With a safeguard case, tariffs may be imposed if “an article is being imported in such increased quantities that it is a substantial cause of serious injury.”
While a safeguard action had not been used since 2002, I believed it would quickly put an end to the problem of country hopping. This is because any tariffs imposed would apply no matter which country the washing machines came from.
Said I to Sarah, if they filed such a safeguard action, I promised I would do my best to try to move it quickly along. Together, we would get it done in Trump Time—yes, as fast as possible.
The case was indeed filed on May 31, 2017. In less than five months, on October 5, 2017, the United States International Trade Commission voted unanimously in favor of Whirlpool.25 Yet, at that point, my fight on behalf of Whirlpool was only half over.
In the second phase of this battle, the ITC would recommend a level of tariffs, but they would only be imposed if President Trump agreed to them. Suffice it to say that I met stiff resistance from Gary Cohn as the director of the National Economic Council—and it was touch and go for several months.
Here is a small snippet of a typical interchange that Cohn and I would have in the Oval Office about the Whirlpool tariffs:
Cohn: Mr. President, you have to understand that if you put these tariffs on, that is going to raise prices and endanger our recovery.
Navarro: Boss, we ran on tariffs in 2016 and the frigging Koreans and Chinese are cheating like crazy. It’s just off the charts. Your Trump tariffs are perfect for this situation.
The Boss: He’s right (looking at Gary and pointing to me). We need to get on with it.
Cohn: But, sir, this is going to raise consumer prices.
The Boss: Can you believe this globalist? (Looking at me.)
Navarro: Unfortunately, I can, sir. He’s your hire but he’s been my problem.
At any rate, after numerous such go-rounds with Cohn over the ensuing months, the Boss would, on January 22, 2018, finally announce the imposition of what would be—a drumroll please—the very first tariffs of the Trump administration.
Yes, it took us a full year to cut to that tariff chase because of the gaggle of globalists in the White House. Yet, better late than never.
Morning Again in Blue Wall Country
Lest anyone believe that tariffs don’t create jobs, come with me now as I reprise that beautiful factory tour we took of the Whirlpool factory in Clyde, Ohio, on August 6, 2020. All you really need to know about this factory is that Whirlpool’s washing machines are now rolling off the assembly line at the astonishing rate of one every four seconds.
Touring this factory with the president was an absolutely beautiful Populist Economic Nationalist sight to behold. Within this 2.4-million-square-foot complex of buildings, there are literally miles of assembly lines that put together parts arriving from a supply chain spread across the Blue Wall states and beyond.
I confess to being nervous as the Boss went through the speech that I had drafted for him. What was unfunny was just about every bit of humor I had tried to interject into the remarks. Comedy is hard.
Still, it was a good speech and a great day for Populist Economic Nationalism. Here are my favorite lines—note the Boss’s pitch to both the Blue Wall states and to local communities across the critical swing state of Ohio:
Your company became a shining example from really a company that was down and out, it became a shining example of what tough trade policies and smart tariffs can bring to jobs and prosperity to communities like this one all over Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and plenty of other states….26
As a result [of the tariffs], Whirlpool’s nine factories across the United States were soon thriving like never before. Investing in new products, new infrastructure and hundreds of new American jobs, and I just took a tour, and I actually wanted a couple of those machines for myself, but I just didn’t know it was going to be appropriate to ask. But they are beautiful. That includes thousands of new jobs across the Ohio supply chain from right here in Clyde to Findlay, Ottawa, Greenville, and Marian.27
Twelve minutes into the speech, the Boss unveiled his six new promises for the 2020 campaign.
The Boss’s “first and foremost” promise—was to “defeat the China Virus.” Yes, I fought hard to make sure we put the word China in the same breath as virus. I also fought hard to make this the “foremost” promise because I was ever so mindful that we were failing miserably at a strategic level in addressing the politics of our pandemic problem.
The second promise was a nice modern-day riff on FDR’s “nothing to fear but fear itself” designed to place a comforting hand on the shoulders of America’s unemployed. Said the Boss: “We will arise from the current adversity…and we will be more prosperous and more resilient than ever.”
The third promise was really the sweet spot of the day for me and the real ringing of the bell for Populist Economic Nationalism. Here, in a clear policy fusion of fighting the pandemic and strengthening our manufacturing base, the Boss promised to:
[T]urn America into the premier medical manufacturer, pharmacy, and drugstore of the world. As we’ve seen in this pandemic, the United States must produce essential equipment, supplies, and pharmaceuticals for ourselves. We cannot rely on China and other nations across the globe that could one day deny us products in a time of need. We can’t do it…. We have to be smart.”28
And, with another drumroll please, POTUS announced that, to immediately begin fulfilling that third promise, he had just “signed a new executive order to ensure that when it comes to essential medicines, we will buy American.” Huzzah and hosannas! As POTUS noted:
The executive order will require that US government agencies purchase all essential medicines that we need from American sources. The executive order will also sweep away unnecessary regulatory barriers to domestic pharmaceutical production, and support advanced manufacturing processes that will keep our drug prices low and allow American companies to compete on the world’s stage.29
In my world, it doesn’t get much better than that. This was an executive order that had taken me six long months to get to the finish line when it could have—and should have—been done in less than a week. But as it would turn out, the timing was at least second best to perfect.
With the benefit of hindsight, I now realize that this glorious Whirlpool event was a battle decisively won but also a Blue Wall war lost. Sadly, with fully ninety critical days left before Election Day, this would be the Boss’s last major policy address focusing on the critical Blue Wall Must Crumble theme. This would also be the last major executive order the Boss would sign to substantially move forward our Populist Economic Nationalist agenda.
And that’s the way the Blue Wall did not crumble.
Yet, there is at least one important coda to this dearth of major MAGA- and manufacturing-themed events that would contribute to the quite needless loss of a key battleground state. This event, which I had proposed, fully staffed, and tentatively scheduled, involved a beautiful MAGA enterprise known as the Commercial Metals Company.
Losing Arizona
President Trump had not only protected the Commercial Metals Company with steel tariffs to facilitate its resurrection. CMC was also booming because much of the rebar that the company was making was going right into building the president’s border wall.
The specific event I had in mind, drafted up by one of my staffers Joanna Miller, was an Air Force One fly-in to a brand-new $300 million CMC micro steel mill in Mesa, Arizona. This expansion represented a thousand new jobs at the mill and would bring in annually half a billion dollars of new economic activity to this critical battleground state,30 all by the grace of God, Donald J. Trump, and a little targeted help from my Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy.
In effect, then, we had a perfect “twofer” event that would highlight both our tough trade and tariff policies along with our equally tough immigration policies. Moreover, it would do so in an increasingly hotly contested battleground state. As an added bonus, the event would even have great political optics in the form of a dynamic female CEO in Barbara Smith.
Regrettably, Hope Hicks, the White House event wrangler, just would not go there. Or more precisely, Hope Hicks just would not let POTUS go there. She just turned her nose up at the event like it was brisket at a caviar party.
Given that we lost Arizona by less than eleven thousand votes, this one particularly hurts in hindsight. You can’t fix politically tone deaf no matter how pretty it looks.