U.S. MANUFACTURINGTrump Touts Manufacturing While Undercutting State Efforts to Help Factories
Tariffs, spending cuts and the winding down of state-based manufacturing aid could hurt small factories.
Steve Whalen loves his home state of Delaware and he’s proud to manufacture computers there that police officers use to “catch bad guys.” He said tariffs on imports from China and other countries, along with sharp cuts to government spending and the winding down of a program for small manufacturers, will make it harder for him to do that.
“We got into business to keep costs low for the ‘good guys,’ but tariffs or anything else that raises prices keeps us from doing that,” said Whalen, co-founder of Sumuri LLC in Magnolia, Delaware, which makes computer workstations for police and government investigations. Whalen has to buy materials overseas, often from China, and he said the tariffs could force him to triple his price on some workstations to $12,000.
Tariffs are the main tool President Donald Trump is wielding to try to boost manufacturing in the United States, calling the achievement of that goal “an economic and national security priority.” But the higher levies have led to retaliation and suspended shipments, and Whalen said they are just one of several Trump administration actions squeezing his small manufacturing business.
The wave of federal spending cuts, which has affected grants to state and local governments, could make his customers put off purchases. And the administration has moved to cut off funding for a $175 million state-based program that provides expert advice to smaller factories like his.
The Delaware version of that program, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, helped Sumuri fit expanded product lines into the limited space in its small-town factory.
“We were really having a tough time trying to figure out how to utilize our space efficiently,” Whalen said. “They came here and helped us organize and optimize, and it made a huge difference.”
On April 1, the Trump administration cut off funding for 10 such manufacturing programs that were up for renewal in Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming. Other state MEP programs will expire over the next year.
The administration gave a reprieve to those 10 states until the end of the fiscal year after objections from Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which manages the program, extended funding for the 10 states “after further review and consideration” and will “continue to evaluate plans for the program,” said agency spokesperson Chad Boutin.
