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THE GREAT MAGA JOB SCAM: HOW TRUMP IS PLOTTING THE NEW AMERICAN
SWEATSHOPS  
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Thom Hartmann
May 5, 2025
Hartmann Report
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_ They say they’re “bringing back jobs,” but what they really
want is a desperate, powerless workforce with no healthcare, no
unions, and no future — just the way Wall Street likes it… _

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Trump and his billionaire toadies like Howard Lutnik and Scott Bessent
are peddling a dangerous lie to working-class Americans. They’re
strutting around claiming their tariffs will bring back “good paying
jobs” with “great benefits,” while actively undermining the very
thing that made manufacturing jobs valuable to working people in the
first place: unions.

LET’S BE CRYSTAL CLEAR ABOUT WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING: WITHOUT
STRONG UNIONS, BRINGING MANUFACTURING BACK TO AMERICA WILL SIMPLY
CREATE MORE SWEATSHOP OPPORTUNITIES WHERE DESPERATE WORKERS EARN
BETWEEN $7.25 AND $15 AN HOUR WITH ZERO BENEFITS AND ZERO SECURITY.

The only reason manufacturing jobs like my father had at a
tool-and-die shop in the 1960s paid well enough to catapult a
single-wage-earner family into the middle class was because they had a
union — the Machinists’ Union, in my dad’s case — fighting
relentlessly for their rights and dignity.

My father’s union job meant we owned a modest home, had reliable
healthcare, and could attend college without crushing debt. The
manufacturing jobs Trump promises? Starvation wages without healthcare
while corporate profits soar and executives buy their third megayacht.

THE PROOF OF THEIR DECEPTION IS WRITTEN ALL OVER THEIR ACTIONS:
THEY’RE ALREADY RECONFIGURING THE LABOR DEPARTMENT INTO AN
ANTI-WORKER WEAPON DESIGNED TO CRUSH ANY FURTHER UNIONIZATION IN
AMERICA.

Joe Biden was also working to revive American manufacturing — with
actual success — but he made it absolutely clear that companies
benefiting from his Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act should
welcome unions in exchange for government support.

TRUMP AND HIS GOP ENABLERS WANT THE OPPOSITE: DOCILE WORKERS GRATEFUL
FOR POVERTY WAGES.

While Republicans babble endlessly about “job creators,” they
fundamentally misunderstand — or deliberately obscure — how a
nation’s true wealth is actually generated.

It’s not through Wall Street speculation or billionaire tax breaks.
It’s through making things of value; the exact activity their donor
class has eagerly shipped overseas for decades while pocketing the
difference.

THERE’S A PROFOUND ECONOMIC REASON TO BRING MANUFACTURING HOME THAT
ADAM SMITH LAID OUT IN 1776 AND ALEXANDER HAMILTON AMPLIFIED IN 1791
WHEN HE PRESENTED HIS VISION FOR TURNING AMERICA INTO A MANUFACTURING
POWERHOUSE. IT’S THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE BEHIND SMITH’S BOOK
“THE WEALTH OF NATIONS” THAT I EXPLAIN IN DETAIL IN _THE HIDDEN
HISTORY OF NEOLIBERALISM: HOW REAGANISM GUTTED AMERICA
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A tree limb lying on the forest floor has zero economic value. But
apply human labor by whittling it into an axe handle, and you’ve
created something valuable. That “added value” — the result of
applying human (or machine) labor to raw materials — is wealth added
to the nation, often lasting for generations if the product endures.
Axes made in the 17th century are still being sold in America;
manufacturing can produce wealth that truly lasts generations.

MANUFACTURING, IN OTHER WORDS, IS THE ONLY TRUE WAY A COUNTRY BECOMES
WEALTHIER. IT’S WHY CHINA TRANSFORMED FROM THE IMPOVERISHED NATION I
WITNESSED FIRSTHAND WHEN I LIVED AND STUDIED THERE IN 1986 TO THE
ECONOMIC JUGGERNAUT IT IS TODAY. IT’S WHY JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA
EMERGED FROM THE DEVASTATION OF WAR TO BECOME INDUSTRIAL POWERHOUSES
WITHIN DECADES.

This is not generally true, by the way, of a service economy, the
system that Reagan and Clinton told us would give us “clean jobs”
as America abandoned manufacturing in the 1980-2000s era.

If I give you a $50 haircut and you give me a $50 massage — a
service economy — we’ve merely shuffled money around while the
nation’s overall wealth remains unchanged. But build a factory
producing solar panels, and you’ve created something from raw
materials that generates power for decades: that’s real wealth that
didn’t exist before.

Republicans used to understand this basic economic principle before
they sold their souls to Wall Street speculators and foreign dictators
who shower them with “investments.”

SERVICE-ONLY ECONOMIES DON’T GENERATE WEALTH; THEY JUST RECIRCULATE
EXISTING MONEY. THIS FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH IS THE STRONGEST ARGUMENT FOR
REBUILDING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING CAPACITY, YET IT’S ONE THAT
ECONOMISTS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATORS ALMOST NEVER MENTION. TRUMP
CERTAINLY DOESN’T GRASP IT — OR CARE — AS HE HAWKS CHINESE-MADE
MAGA HATS WHILE PRETENDING TO CHAMPION AMERICAN WORKERS.

The hypocrisy is staggering. This is the same Donald Trump whose
branded clothing lines were manufactured in China, Mexico, and
Bangladesh. The same Republican Party that pushed “free trade”
deals for decades that gutted American manufacturing communities. Now
they’re suddenly tariff champions? Please.

So yes, let’s use thoughtfully designed tariffs and other trade
policies to bring manufacturing back to our shores. Let Congress
debate and pass these measures with 3- to 10-year phase-in periods so
manufacturers can plan their transition to American production without
the chaos of Trump changing his mind every time some foreign dictator
slips another million into his back pocket.

But don’t be fooled for one second: the GOP’s plan to resurrect
American manufacturing while continuing their war on unions is nothing
but a cynical ploy to create an army of desperate, low-wage workers
with no power to demand their fair share.

IT’S NOT “MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” — IT’S MAKING AMERICA
INTO EXACTLY WHAT THEIR CORPORATE DONORS HAVE ALWAYS WANTED: A DOCILE
WORKFORCE WITH NO VOICE, NO PROTECTIONS, AND NOWHERE ELSE TO GO.

We need manufacturing AND unions. Anything less is just another con
job from the party that’s perfected the art of getting working class
Americans to vote against their own economic interest_s._

_Thom Hartmann is a NY Times bestselling author of 34 books in 17
languages & nation's #1 progressive radio host._

* Labor
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* MAGA
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* Trump
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* Anti-Unionism
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* Sweatshops
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