, Columnist
How the U.S. Squandered Its Steel Superiority
Spoiler alert: Unfair trade practices of foreign nations had nothing to do with it.
When competitive sparks fly.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesDonald Trump wants to help the steel industry in this country, and he’s announced plans for protective tariffs, claiming that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” By way of explanation, Trump claims that steel -- and many other industries -- has been “decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy.”
He’s correct about one thing: This has been a problem many decades in the making. But it’s a problem rooted in disastrous decisions made by the steel companies themselves when Trump was still in elementary school.