Trump Stabs Prominent Montana Supporter With Tariff Knife

Josh Smith is an entrepreneur, a right-wing podcaster, a CEO, and one of Donald Trump’s most ardent and outspoken supporters. And Josh Smith ain’t holding back; he’s “pissed” because he just figured out that Trump’s “dumb as it can get” tariff policies are stabbing his American small business and jeopardizing the working people he employs.

Smith is proud of his company, and he should be. Montana Knife Company, which he founded in 2020, is a classic entrepreneurial success story growing like a rocket ship during the presidency of Joe Biden.¹ The up-from-the-bootstraps business started in Josh’s garage, now employs more than 80 people, and produces high-quality products here in America. MKC builds knives that are coveted by serious hunters like me; the sort of blades that will someday be passed down through generations.

Like many small business entrepreneurs, Smith is a risk taker, too. In 2024, at about the same time Donald Trump was campaigning on bold but unhinged promises to institute dangerously hairbrained tariffs, Smith, who was then 44, decided to risk of further business expansion with a plan to hire up to 70 more employees and build a shiny new 51,000 square foot facility just west of Missoula complete with lots of new machinery and steel, much of it imported.

Even as almost every credible economic expert warned of the danger and lunacy of Trump’s tariff promises², Josh either did not believe it or did not grasp Trump’s complete lack of economic acumen, and throughout the campaign, Josh Smith never wavered from his long and vocal cheerleading for all things MAGA. Just as he had for several years prior, Smith continued the use of his “The Josh Smith Show Podcast” as part marketing tool and part right-wing megaphone for his personal politics, regularly treating guests like Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump Jr, and Republican Senator Tim Sheehy to long, MAGA-fawning conversations. In April 2024, Smith even posted about personally meeting Trump, and then, in January, he hosted a well-attended inaugural watch party in D.C.³

Even well into 2025, when Trump’s tariff bombs were starting to explode, Smith kept up the cheerleading, mocking companies that added tariff surcharges to their invoices and posting a social media video in which he held up an egg, signifying that tariffs would impact his company and his workers exactly ZERO, the same as a goose egg. Smith then went on in that video to repeat Trump’s idiotic talking points: “We’ve been preaching this all along, we are American-made, buy American, and you don’t have to worry about this shit.”⁴

But it turns out that the experts were right, Josh and Trump were wrong. Smith and his employees do, in fact, have to worry about this shit. Months after his first mocking video, as Josh came to terms with the tariff charge increases for his new factory, he was first shocked and then angry. A few days later, he posted a new video in which he states:

“Alright, Donald Trump, I’ve got a bone to pick with you and your administration…I’m a bit pissed about your tariffs…why am I paying tariffs on that manufacturing equipment, it makes no sense, it’s about as dumb of a government policy as government policies get…you can not buy that equipment here.”

Josh also rightfully asks,

“Why are we talking so much about Epstein, no granted he’s a piece of shit and I am also not happy with Trump about that…Maybe call me Mr Trump.”

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING VIDEO TO WATCH:

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But Smith was not done, following that post and in his most recent podcast episode entitled “Tariff This”⁵, Smith further detailed the exact impacts of Trump’s policies on people like him. The exact sort of impacts that will slow down job growth and American manufacturing. The exact sort of impacts that hit working people and don’t impact billionaires like Trump or Bezos. This is the posted episode description:

This episode of The Josh Smith Show dives into the messy and current world of tariffs and how they’re hitting businesses Montana Knife Company hard. Josh breaks down the real impact: a 50% tariff on European steel, potentially the only option after Crucible Technologies went bankrupt. Last year, a 36% tariff would’ve added over half of a million dollars to MKC’s steel bill alone. Then there’s the German-made bevel grinders, essential for their new 51,000 sq. ft. Montana facility, facing 30-50% tariffs that could turn a $400,000 machine into $600,000. Josh argues tariffs on finished goods like knives make sense, but taxing raw materials and equipment unavailable in the US? That’s hurting the very businesses trying to bring manufacturing back. From Niagara Steel rolling European slabs in New York to MKC hiring local Montanans and engineers, these policies risk slowing growth and killing jobs. Josh calls for smarter, nuanced policies and urges leaders to talk to business owners to avoid wrecking the companies they claim to support.

A few days later, on Aug 7, Trump, apparently immune to the pleas of small businesspeople like Josh Smith, or the red warning lights of the drastic downward revision in jobs numbers, increased tariffs again at midnight and then celebrated by posting this on social media:

I don’t want to dunk on Josh, and I damn sure do not want all the good people who work at MKC to suffer. But I do think we should demand better of people like Josh Smith. He’s plenty smart enough to have known that these Republican MAGA policies would be bad for Americans. He can see that his Republican representative and senator are enabling this lunacy, and yet he refuses to say he’ll vote against them. It’s hard to take him seriously if he won’t even vote against the people causing this pain.

We can all see that this is bad for working people because tariffs impact the goods that working people need and the jobs they depend on. Just like everything else Trump does, this regressive policy will help Billionaires and hurt small businesses. I’m glad that Josh Smith sees the truth on tariffs now, but the same truth is equally evident on health care, tax breaks for billionaires, and gutting public lands to benefit big corporations.

Welcome to the new morning, Josh - breathe deep, there’s a lot more coffee to smell.

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Josh Smith - "Tariff This" - EP 99. The Josh Smith Show The Josh Smith Show 40:05