'the Plan Is Working': Trump's Trade Chief Brushes Off Economic Fears In Rust Belt Tour

CLYDE, Ohio — President Donald Trump’s trade adviser spent the last two days walking factory floors along the edges of Lake Erie with an upbeat economic message: Manufacturing is on its way back.

The Middle East War, which has driven up energy prices, snarled supply chains across the world and, according to new data out Friday, spiked inflation to 3.3 percent in March? A momentary roadblock.

“You analyze the number, it sounds scary, but the reality is, we have a temporary disruption.” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters on Friday. “The fundamentals of the economy are where we want them to be. You know, we went from a 9 percent high of inflation in the Biden administration, to now we're finally getting down to where we need to be.”

Rather than the gloomy new economic indicators, Trump’s trade adviser preferred to focus on the work happening at a Whirlpool factory in Clyde, Ohio producing hundreds of washing machines a day or the Jeep Wranglers coming off the assembly line at a plant in Warren, Mich. The administration’s trade policies, he argued, are setting the stage for these kinds of blue-collar industries — and their workers — to flourish, just like the president promised they would.

He stuck to that message during five stops in America’s industrial heartland, ranging from small upstart drone manufacturers to the Big Three automaker Stellantis and capped with an announcement by Whirlpool that it is investing $60 million to build a new factory in Ohio. At each place, he highlighted the importance of making things in America, something many manufacturers are warning is getting more expensive to do under Trump.

“When I come here, see what’s happening, see the workers and hear about the investments, I know the plan is working,” he said at the Whirlpool plant.

“And frankly, the trade program, it's not really about prices, it's about jobs and wages. Manufacturing wages are going up and investments, like we saw here today, are creating more manufacturing in America,” Greer added.

The war in the Middle East stands to greatly exacerbate the cost of doing business for manufacturers, despite a two-week ceasefire now in place. While the deal was supposed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for oil and other energy products leaving the Gulf, only three tankers have passed through the strait since Tuesday, according to S&P Global Market Research. Before the war, more than 50 tankers were crossing a day.

Energy prices, a major input for manufacturers, have surged dramatically. On Friday, the Labor Department revealed that inflation shot up to its highest level in two years in March, with energy costs accounting for nearly three-quarters of the monthly increase. Consumer sentiment, meanwhile, sunk to a record low.

Trump and Republicans rode similar economic angst to resounding victories in the Rust Belt four years ago, after hammering then-President Joe Biden and his party for failing to rein in inflation after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Michigan and Ohio are again home to pivotal races in 2026, with two Senate contests that could decide control of the chamber, plus a pair of high-profile gubernatorial races. Except this time, it’s the GOP that is making the glass-half-full pitch to wary voters, while insisting any negative economic trends are fleeting.

After trying a similar message for two years — the Biden administration insisted the near-double digit inflation was “transitory” — Democrats are relishing the opportunity to turn the tables this year. And they are using Trump’s tariffs, as well as his decision to launch a war against Iran, to underscore Republicans’ failure to control costs.

The latest economic pain comes just as American businesses were starting to feel a little more hopefulabout the future and the level of certainty they’d have, after a turbulent year of trade wars and on-again, off-again tariffs.

The Supreme Court in February deemed a big chunk of Trump’s 2025 tariffs unconstitutional. Less than 12 hours after that decision, Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff under a different authority.

On his tour through the Midwest, Greer painted the tariffs as a necessary tool to bring more manufacturing to the U.S. by protecting businesses from cheap goods produced overseas and creating a cost-prohibitive barrier that forces companies to find and create domestic supply chains.

And he indicated to the workers and CEO’s he spoke to at his stops that none of the setbacks — which he painted as transient — had shaken the administration's commitment to its trade agenda, or the belief that it will ultimately bring about the industrial rebirth they’ve promised.

“We are dedicated to this, we’re dedicated to American manufacturing,” Greer said. “We’re not going to let politics get in the way.”