Death, Taxes, and The Wall Street Journal Supporting The Hollowing Out Of American Manufacturing

February 3, 2025
  • 02/02/25

     Death, Taxes, and The Wall Street Journal Supporting The Hollowing Out Of American Manufacturing
     
    The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board’s latest tirade against President Donald Trump’s decisive action to stop fentanyl from killing innocent Americans is a helpful remember that the WSJ is always wrong when it comes to tariffs and trade. The Journal’s editorial page has supported America Last policies such as open borders and outsourcing for years now.
     
    As President Trump wrote Sunday, “The ‘Tariff Lobby,’ headed by the Globalist, and always wrong, Wall Street Journal, is working hard to justify Countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA, both with regard to TRADE, CRIME, AND POISONOUS DRUGS that are allowed to so freely flow into AMERICA.”
     
    In a 1991 commentary article entitled “Mexican Reveille,” the Journal attacked opponents of NAFTA as “protectionists” and “anti-growth zealots.” Between NAFTA’s implementation in 1994 and 2014, the U.S. auto sector lost 348,000 jobs. One study found that just through 2002, the NAFTA deal “caused the displacement of production that supported 879,280 U.S. jobs.”In a 2000 column entitled “Clinton Gives A Pass To ‘Globaphobia,’” Wall Street Journal editorial board editor Robert Bartley wrote that NAFTA was one of Bill Clinton’s “true accomplishments.”
     
    In 1999, the Wall Street Journal claimed that China’s ascendance into the World Trade Association was “worth celebrating.” China’s entrance into the WTO and its permanent normal trade status caused the U.S. to lose 3.7 million jobs, according to one study.
     
    In 2001, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board editor Robert Bartley wrote that the Wall Street Journal “supports” the “vision” of “open borders for not only goods and investment but also people.” Bartley noted in his column that in 1984, the Wall Street Journal editorial page suggested a “constitutional amendment: ‘There shall be open borders.’” We just witnessed what open borders looks like during the previous administration. Open borders means illegal immigrant gangs taking over apartment buildings and a flood of terrorists.
     
    In 2018, the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote that President Trump made “the biggest policy blunder of his presidency” by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum. A 2024 study on the effects of President Trump’s tariffs in his first administration found that they “strengthened the U.S. economy,” and “led to significant reshoring” in industries like manufacturing and steel production.