Raymond J. de Souza: Lessons for Trump from Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Not only is President Donald Trump attempting to revive the American steel industry with tariffs — raised to 50 per cent last week — but he is personally (with taxpayer funds) increasing demand.
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This Saturday, for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army — happily coinciding with his 79th birthday — Trump has ordered up a Soviet-style military parade. Will the old politburo rules apply, where the first cabinet secretary to stop applauding the leader will be exiled to the outer ring of Elon?
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As Washington's roads were not built to accommodate the tonnage of massive M1A1 Abrams tanks, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been laying down steel plates to mitigate the damage. Should there be an 80th birthday politburo parade next year, those steel plates will be more expensive, as the army will be paying steel tariffs to the federal government for its equipment. Trump taxes the military to enrich the Treasury.
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In Trumpworld, where 'tariff' is the 'most beautiful word in the dictionary,' steel and aluminum tariffs have pride of place. Those tariffs date back to the first Trump term, though this time around they are more bigly. The 2018 steel tariffs increased employment in the U.S. steel industry by a thousand jobs; manufacturing job losses due to higher steel costs were estimated at 75,000.
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Trump remarkably believes that America should have a large steel industry again. While the U.S. does import steel, as other countries make certain kinds of higher quality steel, American domestic steel production over decades has largely tracked domestic consumption. The U.S. makes less steel now because it builds fewer things needing steel. That has been the case for 50 years. If the largest employer is General Motors, steel production will be much higher than if the largest employer is Walmart.
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Leave aside economic data. Listen to the laments. Literal laments. Billy Joel, who recently withdrew from his current concert tour due to ill health, grew up in Hicksville on Long Island, N.Y., less than 50 kilometres from Trump Tower. His song Allentown was released in 1982, the year Trump Tower's construction was completed. It told the tale of Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania steel towns that were already dying as U.S. steel production slowed down. That was 43 years ago.
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The song opens with a factory whistle and the lyric that 'they're closing all the factories down.'
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'We're living here in Allentown, but it's getting very hard to stay,' sang Joel. 'Every child had a pretty good shot to get at least as far as their old man got, but something happened on the way to that place — they threw an American flag in our face.'
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That might summarize the Trump appeal to working-class voters in Pennsylvania and other similar places. But Billy Joel sang that long before NAFTA, long before the rise of China, long before the financial crisis. He sang it when Trump was less than half the age he is now. Trump is wrong on the problem and thus wrong on the remedy.
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