Trump official admits US workers won't get jobs in new factories spurred by tariff strategy [View all]

[In It to Win It]

Donald Trump’s secretary of Commerce seemingly admitted on Sunday that US workers would not see long-lost manufacturing jobs return as a result of the president’s new tariff strategy, which places duties on nearly all US imports.

Howard Lutnick appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday and promised that “trillions” of dollars would flow into the US in the form of new investments in America’s manufacturing sector. Margaret Brennan, the show’s host, questioned whether those factories would be “automated”, as Lutnick had said previously.

Pointing out that the construction of new factories “takes years” and will do nothing to bring down costs of consumer goods for Americans in the short term, Brennan added: “You said that robots are going to fill those jobs. So those aren't union worker jobs.”

“It’s automated factories,” Lutnick conceded, while promising that American workers would build and “operate” the factories brought to US shores in the coming months and years.

Lutnick went on to portray the automization of iPhone assembly as one of the benefits of the president’s plan, claiming that the “army” of “millions” currently employed in Apple’s factories overseas would no longer be part of the process. America, he said, would see an explosion of mid-level trade employment opportunities including “mechanics”, “HVAC technicians” and more in support of this hypothetical surge in growth of US manufacturing.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-official-admits-us-workers-203958355.html