Yet another edition of FAFO. This time a family owned sawmill in North Carolina, ravaged by Trump. Oh and they voted for Trump. They LITERALLY voted for the leopards eating faces party and are shocked that the leopard ate THEIR face.
Bloomberg did a whole podcast about this and conducted in depth interviews to talk about the impact Trump’s tariffs had on their community and their business.
Mackeys Ferry Sawmill in North Carolina heavily relied on exporting its hardwood goods to both China and Vietnam after domestic demand slowed. But, Trump’s tariffs from his stupid trade war caused so much financial turmoil that the sawmill ended up shutting down for good in September, just 2 months after Trump’s so called “Liberation Day.”
Did I mention that they voted for Donald Trump?
It is a fascinating interview that covered a lot of interesting information, but here are some memorable quotes/comments that stood out to me:
WILSON: “ Liberation Day, it did, at the time, it had damn near liberated me from our business. And in essence, it has. I’m bitter about that.”
And then this exchange:
DONNAN: What took you over the edge here? What caused you to to, to shut this down?
WILSON: Honestly, the market conditions in relation to the retaliatory tariffs that we have in China. They put the final nails in the coffin.
DONNAN: But the final nail in the coffin-
WIILSON: Was when we couldn’t sell the lumber.
GURA: When President Trump imposed tariffs back in April, wood from Mackeys Ferry worth some $500,000 was on its way to China as part of a regular shipment. Within days that shipment was facing tariffs worth more than the wood itself.
DONNAN: If President Trump pulled up here today and you walked him into the sawmill. What would you tell him?
WILSON: Well, I’d like to say, What the heck? Actually, I’d like to say about nine different expletives. But, you know, President Trump, gee, I understand what you’re trying to do, but you’re on a fool’s mission. And you’re not helping out a few. You’re hurting a lot. If you put all these little communities together from Maine over to Michigan, down to Mississippi and Alabama, it’s having the same effect on these small little communities. From the guy that’s just stacking lumber to the guy that’s sawing – don’t even care about the guy that’s the mill owner – what about those guys?
And then…I lost all my empathy:
GURA: Shawn asked them if they voted for him and for those trade policies to begin with.
STEPHEN: I voted for Trump because there was no alternative, I mean, at all.
(WHAT)
DONNAN: Did you vote for him all the way back to 2016 or did you…?
WILSON: I voted for Trump all three times.
DONNAN: Did you?
WILSON: Yep. I did. But I, I literally was in the voting booth.
DONNAN: OK, so you voted for the man you both voted for the man. The man’s policies have contributed to you going out of business. Do you have any regrets about voting for the man?
WILSON: There are some things I regret about voting for President Trump? Yes, a hundred percent. Trade policy is one of them, even though that I wish he could have moderated his tone. Well, I understand you have to do one thing to get elected and then something else, but I wish it hadn’t have turned out that way. That being said, given the two people running, regardless of what they said on the campaign trail, I would’ve voted for President Trump again.
…and, my empathy is fully gone as I watch the leopards feast. I hand them a napkin and some salt to make the meal taste better.
These idiots got exactly what they voted for. They are just upset that Trump is hurting them and not the other people he promised to hurt. And if Trump ran again, I guarantee they would vote for him.