Tariff Backlash: US Factory Workers Turn on Trump Weeks Before Midterms

Nelson Vandermeer voted Republican for decades. But the 62-year-old product designer never voted for President Donald Trump, warning that steep tariffs on imports would do more harm than good for American workers. Last year, he says, his worst fears came true in the most personal way possible: the Michigan clockmaker he worked for shut its factory after a century in business, laid off nearly 200 employees — and Vandermeer, according to an Associated Press report published Monday, plans to vote straight Democrat on November 3.

A Howard Miller floor clock. The Zeeland, Michigan clockmaker closed its factory after a century in business. (Company product image)

Trump made tariffs the cornerstone of his economic agenda, promising that taxing imports would trigger a manufacturing renaissance across the United States. Three weeks out from the midterm elections, the Associated Press reports, that renaissance has not materialized — and in the factory towns of Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and Pennsylvania, Republican candidates are now facing an angry backlash from the very workers the policy was supposed to help.

Vandermeer's employer, Howard Miller, built its name on grandfather clocks and mantel clocks. Long before the tariffs arrived, the company was already struggling as American buyers lost their appetite for high-end timepieces, according to the AP. Years ago it diversified into bar carts, cabinets and consoles to stay alive. But those products, too, depended on glass and other components from abroad, and when the tariffs landed, diversification was not enough to save the company. The century-old business closed its factory in Zeeland, Michigan, sold off its inventory and its brand name, and let go of nearly 200 people.

A Century-Old Clockmaker Goes Quiet

Vandermeer's story is the one Republicans running for Congress this fall are dreading. A lifelong conservative who watched his industry collapse under the weight of rising import costs, he now delivers the line that could define this election cycle: "So much for bringing jobs back." Describing the loss of his livelihood, he told the AP, "It was like taking a knife to the back."

The numbers behind his experience are stark. Although the United States has added some manufacturing jobs this year, the AP notes the sector now employs fewer people than it did when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. The promised factory boom has not arrived on schedule.

The White House disputes that framing. Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers insisted a boom is genuinely underway, pointing to rising manufacturing output and increased work in nonresidential construction trades. "Factory construction jobs of today mean more manufacturing jobs down the road once those factories come online," she said. The administration has maintained that tariffs need time to work, and that import taxes will eventually pull production back onto American soil.

But for workers who have already lost their paychecks, patience is in short supply — and the November 3 election is three weeks away.

Job Losses Pile Up in Battleground States

Vandermeer lives in Michigan's 4th Congressional District, represented by Republican Bill Huizenga, who is seeking a ninth term. Before Trump rolled out his broadest round of tariffs — the package the president branded "Liberation Day" — Huizenga was an enthusiastic supporter. "Is it going to be easy? Not necessarily. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely it is," he told reporters at the time.

That enthusiasm has cooled. A spokesperson for Huizenga told the AP last week that the congressman "sees a potential role for tariffs" for boosting domestic manufacturing "while recognizing the need to address their broader economic effects." His Democratic challenger, state Sen. Sean McCann, has hammered him for opposing legislation that would rein in tariffs imposed unilaterally by the president.

Similar scenes are playing out across the industrial Midwest and Great Plains. In Iowa, 55-year-old Tracy Chew voted for Trump in 2016, then swung to Democrats Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024. She worked for Case, a backhoe manufacturer, which announced it would close its plant in Burlington, Iowa, before the tariffs took effect. Chew lost her job in April; her daughter followed, and then her husband and son-in-law lost theirs in the weeks after. Leaning toward voting Democratic again this year, she told the AP she is "furious he isn't doing enough," adding that "tariffs are not targeting the right companies, the right amount."

Elsewhere in Iowa, recreational vehicle maker Winnebago Industries cut 200 jobs last year after the cost of importing aluminum, steel and electronics climbed by tens of millions of dollars. "It's a day to day battle," the company's chief executive, Michael Happe, said.

In Kansas, the pain is just as visible. Cole Hoppock, chief executive of appliance maker Vornado Air in Wichita — famous for its retro household fans — said Trump's tariffs "impacted virtually everything." The company laid off more than 70 factory workers in February, blaming the soaring price of imported parts. Another Kansas employer may face cuts soon: Canadian jet manufacturer Bombardier, after Trump threatened to ban the company's sales in the United States unless it builds all its planes domestically. Bombardier says it buys parts from 2,800 companies across 47 states, including in Kansas, where it employs more than 1,000 people.

Trump's Trade Approval Craters

Trump has spent years arguing that other countries are taking advantage of the United States on trade, and that broad tariffs would fix the imbalance. Most economists have long disagreed, warning that universal levies would cause more pain than they cure. According to the AP, ordinary Americans are now siding with the economists.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll taken in September found that only about three in ten U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of trade negotiations — down from four in ten back in March. Some of the tariffs have also been deployed in erratic fashion: Trump targeted Brazil over political differences, and he pushed tariffs on China so high that they risked triggering a recession before he backed down. In February, the Supreme Court ruled against his use of an emergency declaration to impose last year's "Liberation Day" tariffs, leaving American trade policy in a state of continued uncertainty as the administration layers on new levies and threats.

To be fair, tariffs are far from the only reason American factories have shed jobs. Plants have been cutting workers for decades, with or without trade wars, as automation and global supply chains reshaped the industry. And not every displaced worker blames the president.

Bicycle Corp. of America shut its factory in South Carolina last year, blaming the rising price of imported parts. But Koby Bird, who retired after years in quality control at the plant, still supports tariffs — he is simply frustrated by how unpredictably they have been applied. "It was all over the place," he said. "Businesses couldn't plan." Bird is likely to stick with Republicans next month, including U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, because he believes Democrats would spend too much money on the wrong things.

Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University in Nebraska, cautions that factory-floor anger may not automatically become Democratic votes. Some voters, he says, believe "the tariffs in the long run will work."

President Donald Trump, whose sweeping tariffs were meant to trigger a US manufacturing revival. (Official White House portrait)

What This Means

The AP investigation points to a shift that should worry Republican strategists: the anger is no longer coming only from the usual critics. Wendell Young, president of Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union in Pennsylvania, says he can feel the mood changing among workers who once defended the president fiercely.

Last summer, Young said he was flooded with furious replies after sending an email blaming tariffs for Post Holdings' decision to cut 160 jobs at a pet food factory in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. "Keep politics out of this," one worker wrote back. "President Trump isn't the reason." Today, Young hears a very different tone. "People used to beat me up for not supporting Trump. I haven't heard that in a year," he said. "Some of these people are red Republicans and they are shocked. They expected more jobs."

Post Holdings ultimately reduced the headcount through severance packages instead of outright layoffs, but the ripple effects spread anyway: local can manufacturer Trivium Packaging cut jobs because it was getting fewer orders from Post and other customers. Heather Kingston, a former Trivium worker, summed up the frustration felt across the region: "I understand the mindset behind tariffs, but I just don't know if it's working." She added that she doesn't see many manufacturing jobs moving into the area. Kingston voted for Republican Dan Meuser in the 9th District last time; this year, she says, she is having doubts.

That hesitation, multiplied across thousands of households, is the nightmare scenario for a party that staked its economic credibility on a factory revival.

Factory work in Michigan, a state at the heart of America's manufacturing economy. (File photo)

What Happens Next

With the midterms just weeks away, both parties will be watching the industrial Midwest and Pennsylvania closely. Iowa's open U.S. Senate seat — where Rep. Ashley Hinson faces Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek — and Kansas, where Democrat Adam Hamilton, a pastor, is challenging Republican Roger Marshall, are now viewed as races where the tariff economy could tip the balance. In Pennsylvania, districts near the Post and Trivium plants — the 7th and 8th — are considered genuinely up for grabs even as Meuser's 9th District seat is seen as safe.

The White House is betting that time is on its side: that new factories will come online, that import taxes will eventually force supply chains home, and that voters will reward long-term thinking. The workers profiled by the AP are a reminder that for people who have already lost their jobs, "eventually" is not an answer.

Three weeks from Election Day, the question hanging over the factory towns is simple. Trump promised that tariffs would bring the jobs back. Nelson Vandermeer and thousands like him are still waiting — and their patience, like their paychecks, is running out.