How Trump’s Spite Derailed a Manufacturing Boom

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

It was just a few years ago that Cliff Tobey and other union miners on Minnesota’s Iron Range won significant wage increases and looked confidently to the future amid a thriving manufacturing economy.

The federal government’s historic investments in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and cutting-edge industries galvanized demand for American-made materials and goods, including the taconite that Tobey and fellow members of the United Steelworkers (USW) produce for steel.