Trump’s tariffs forced U.S. factories to close down or lay off workers, and longtime GOP voters are revolting—’It was like taking a knife to the back’

Donald Trump’s tariffs have triggered massive factory closures and layoffs in key battleground states, including Michigan, Iowa and Kansas. Howard Miller, a clockmaker operating for a century in Zeeland, Michigan, shut down and laid off nearly 200 workers, including Nelson Vandermeer, 62, who had voted Republican for decades and now plans to vote straight Democrat in upcoming elections. The U.S. manufacturing sector now has fewer employees than when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, despite his promises of an industrial renaissance. According to an AP-NORC poll conducted in September, only about three in ten Americans approve of Trump’s handling of trade negotiations, down from four in ten in March.

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