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Reindustrialization Is Just
Central Planning, MAGA-Style
By Will Marshall
President of the Progressive Policy Institute
for The Hill
Why is President Trump so intent on inflicting his unpopular tariffs on the U.S. economy? How did America, always a trading nation bordering two oceans, suddenly become the free world’s glowering bastion of protectionism?
The president’s logic is often fuzzy, but for once he and his economic team have a clear answer: They’re on a mission to reindustrialize America. They call it “economic nationalism,” but it’s really just central planning, MAGA-style.
Trump believes free trade agreements and globalization eviscerated U.S. manufacturing, studding the landscape with shuttered factories — “tombstones” as he put it in his bleak 2017 inaugural address.
In fact, U.S. manufacturing output has grown substantially since 1980. What has declined is factory employment and manufacturing’s share of GDP. That tracks the trend of deindustrialization and rising demand for services in all advanced countries, regardless of trade policies.
Nonetheless, the president is ripping up trade agreements and taxing imports from friends and foes alike, in hopes of generating lots more factory jobs. But building walls around our economy won’t change the fact that automation has severed the old relationship between increased industrial production and blue-collar job growth.
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Don't Miss Our Next PPI Event!
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Can Europe Turn Tough Talk on Russia into Action?
By Tamar Jacoby
Director of the New Ukraine Project
for Washington Monthly
The war in Ukraine has transformed Western European thinking about defending itself against its giant neighbor, Russia. The latest push, proposed last week by the European Union, is a blueprint for a better coordinated military buildup—procuring and manufacturing weapons together rather than separately, country by country. It’s an ambitious plan, in line with other pending continent-wide reforms—deregulation and a single capital market—and like them, it promises increased efficiency and scale in pursuit of shared European goals. What’s unclear is whether the 27 EU members and their allies, including Britain, can put aside national interests for the common good. The stakes could hardly be higher, but the evidence is mixed.
Much has changed in Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, with countries across the continent talking a much different game than four years ago. After decades of hoping for good relations with Moscow, most leaders now see their eastern neighbor as an aggressive, revanchist power, preparing potentially for a hot war and already menacing nearby nations with an array of gray-zone weapons—from disinformation and cyberattacks to sabotage of critical infrastructure. Uncertain if an increasingly fickle and isolationist U.S. will stand by them, many Europeans recognize they must prepare to face the enemy alone, and defense is now Topic A in political circles.
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A new PPI report titled “An AI Innovation Toolbox for Governors” unveils an AI innovation toolbox for governors: a practical policy framework designed to help states compete for investment, jobs, and leadership in the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence economy. Authored by Dr. Michael Mandel, PPI VP and Chief Economist, the report identifies five strategic levers (tax incentives, smart energy policy, university partnerships, workforce training, and AI extension programs) to help states attract AI investment, boost productivity, and create well-paying jobs.
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New from the Experts
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Director of Housing Policy and the American Identity Project: Clinging to Racial Preferences
⮕ The Liberal Patriot
Diana Moss, Vice President and Director of Competition Policy: Urging DC Council Not to Regulate Resale Ticketing and Focus Instead on Fighting the Live Nation-Ticketmaster Monopoly
⮕ New PPI Testimony
WATCH- Curtis Valentine, Director of the Future Learning Network: Turnaround: Public School Choice and the Unlikely Story of New Orleans
⮕ PPI Webinar
Bruno Manno, Senior Advisor: The AI Jobs Debate, Simplified
⮕ Forbes
Featuring Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets: Trump Struggles to Crack Tariff Piggy Bank
⮕ Politico
Trade Fact of the Week: No, Mr. Lutnick, Ballistic Missiles Are Not Made of Wood
⮕ PPI's Trade Fact of the Week
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In episode 3 of In Competition We Trust, Diana Moss chats with Michael Kades, Antitrust Partner at Nachawati Law Group and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. They explore how robust antitrust enforcement can help rein in skyrocketing health care costs, promote competition among providers, and deliver better outcomes for consumers.
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Staff Spotlight: Richard Kahlenberg
 Director of Housing Policy and the American Identity Project
Richard D. Kahlenberg is the Director of Housing Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, and the Director of the American Identity Project, where he is working on to strengthen American identity through public education. The author or editor of eighteen books, he has expertise in education, civil rights, and equal opportunity. Kahlenberg has been called “the intellectual father of the economic integration movement” in K–12 schooling and “arguably the nation’s chief proponent of class-based affirmative action in higher education admissions.” He is also an authority on teachers’ unions, charter schools, community colleges, housing segregation, and labor organizing.
Kahlenberg’s articles have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and elsewhere. He has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and NPR.
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