Taxes hurt his business. He’s voting for Trump anyway

For nearly 35 years, Wyoming businessman Alan Chadwick ran his business importing clothing from China and selling Western-style gear to “working cowboy” stores in the US.

Now, with former President Donald Trump campaigning on a promise to hit all goods coming into the country with a 10%-20% tariff, or border tax, which will rise to 60% of goods from China, Chadwick must seriously rethink the strategy.

The 66-year-old has been exploring production of his moving products, such as woolen shirts with snaps and canvas jackets, to India or Pakistan — or perhaps closing his Wyoming Traders business, which employs 16 people, and quitting altogether.

Chadwick said the tariffs were “a tax on the American people” and warned that the cost for a company like his to open a factory in the US was unreasonable.

But as he prepares to vote, he expects to swallow his reservations about the tax in favor of other priorities, such as illegal immigration and opposition to abortion.

“I will vote for Trump even though he will hurt our company if he does what he says he will do,” he said.

Chadwick’s willingness to look beyond Trump’s views on taxes is a sign of the conflicting views that shape American politics.

The Republican platform has moved America – once the global champion of free trade – to embrace policies designed to protect US companies and jobs from foreign competition, despite potential economic setbacks.

During his first term, Trump hit thousands of goods from China with tariffs – measures that President Joe Biden, despite criticizing them before entering the White House, kept in place.

This year, the Republican has put plans for a tax sweep in his presidential campaign, calling the jobs “the best word in the dictionary”.

He argues that his plans – which analysts say could restore the highest level of import costs in at least 50 years – will spur job creation, revive US manufacturing, raise wages and raise billions of dollars abroad.

“We will be a tax nation. It will not be a cost to you, it will be a cost to another country,” he said on the way.

His claims are rejected by many mainstream economists, who say the policy will do little to increase employment in the US, while raising costs for everyday Americans and slowing global growth.

In the US, the Tax Foundation predicts that the tariffs will reduce total employment by 684,000 and reduce GDP by 0.8% – and that’s without taking into account any retaliation from other countries.

For the average US household, costs would rise by at least $1,700, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which is one of the lowest estimates out there.

“It makes no sense,” said economist Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, of Trump’s promises. “This is not the solution people are hoping for.”

Despite the caveats, some polls indicate that Trump’s ideas are working: a September poll by Reuters/Ipsos found that 56% of likely voters favor the Republican tax plans.

Kyle Plesa, a 39-year-old Trump voter in Miami, Florida, said he doesn’t think the tariffs will have the impact the candidate promised, but the Republican focus on the pitfalls of globalization has swayed the imagination.

“People are upset about it and I think Trump is at least talking about it,” he said.

“I would probably prefer to protect the business and pay less because of costs than to deal with the current situation of inflation and raising taxes on the left,” he added.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has attacked Trump’s tax hike plans as a “national sales tax”, promising a more targeted approach.

But Trump has said the money brought in from spending could allow for big tax cuts — sometimes floating the idea of ​​eliminating the income tax altogether.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s decision to keep Trump’s tariffs on China — and extend them to things like electric cars — has also allowed Republicans to claim a policy victory.

Biden has also signed off on other protectionist policies, such as historic government spending to boost manufacturing in sectors like semiconductors and green energy.

He and Harris, like Trump, have opposed the takeover of US Steel by a Japanese company on national security grounds, raising concerns in the business community about foreign investment.

Michael Froman, who served as US trade representative under former President Barack Obama, said Washington’s approach to tools such as tariffs and restrictions on foreign investment “may be here to stay”.

“There is certainly little enthusiasm to pursue what we would call a liberal, open, de-barrier trade agenda,” he said. “We need to know that none of these policies are free. They all force some kind of trade-off.”

Jason Trice, chief executive of Jasco, an Oklahoma-based lighting and electronics company that sells to major retailers such as Walmart, said his company’s experience shows the extent of the damage it can do.

Since 2019, it has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in tariffs while transforming its supply chain, shifting much of its production from China to places like Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

He said these changes made his company less efficient and increased costs by about 10%-15%, which he passed on to vendors, eventually raising prices and contributing to inflation.

It all affected his business, which saw revenue drop by 25% from 2020 as well the numbers of its employees are decreasing, with attrition, from 500 to 350.

“In 50 years in business, the Chinese government has never done anything nearly as damaging to our business as what the Trump administration is doing,” Trice said. “Taxes didn’t help bring jobs back to America. They cut jobs.”

Lucerne International, a Michigan-based auto parts supplier that has produced in China for decades, has also spent the past few years adjusting to the new climate.

With the help of government incentives, the company is now working to open its first factory in the country in 2026, plans that are expected to create more than 300 jobs in four years.

But while the project may sound like the kind of “reinstatement” politicians in both parties want to see, executive director Mary Buchzeiger, a longtime Republican, said it was a mistake for the US to try to “build walls” against it. competitors.

“I don’t think tariffs are a long-term solution,” he said.

“What we will do is continue to make ourselves uncompetitive in the world.”

Michelle Fleury contributed to this report

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