There are plenty of economic justifications for placing tariffs on China. But bringing American manufacturing home and rebalancing global trade isn’t just about dollars and cents; it’s about keeping our country safe, our troops ready, and our enemies in check.
As a retired Air Force colonel who’s seen the world’s dangers up close, I’m telling you: we can’t keep outsourcing our strength to a rival power like China. Here’s the unfiltered truth on why tariffs matter for our national security.
China has got us by the throat when it comes to manufacturing military equipment. They’re pumping out everything from the rare earth minerals in our missiles to the chips in our drones, and we’re just handing them the keys to our arsenal.
In 2024, the United States imported $438 billion in goods from China, and they produce around 90 percent of the world’s rare earths. You think that’s an accident? Hell no. That’s a chokehold, and in a fight – whether it’s a Cold War-style standoff or a hot war in the South China Sea – they can squeeze tight. Imagine trying to keep our F-35s in the air or our Navy’s destroyers running without those materials. We’d be grounded faster than a C-130 in a sandstorm.
That’s not even to mention semiconductors. Those little chips are the lifeblood of modern warfare – critical for guidance systems, comms, you name it. China has a big slice of that pie, and we saw in 2021 how a chip shortage nearly ground this country to a halt. Ford couldn’t even get enough F-150s out the door. Now imagine how quickly every fighter jet, tank, or missile system could be rendered useless.
In a conflict, China could instantly turn off the tap of dozens of materials critical to our military readiness. Our drones go dark, our missiles miss, and our boys and girls in uniform are left swinging in the wind. That’s not just a supply chain hiccup; that’s a national security disaster.
Then there’s the medical side. China makes the building blocks for our drugs. COVID-19 showed us what happens when those lines dry up: no masks, no ventilators, no nothing. In a war, you think they’re going to keep shipping us penicillin while we’re lobbing Tomahawks at Beijing? Not a chance. Our troops would be coughing and bleeding without the basics to patch them up. That’s not how you win fights.
So, what’s the fix? Tariffs, and I mean real ones. Slap them on Chinese goods and make it hurt to keep outsourcing our future.
This strategy doesn’t come without risk and perhaps even some short-term pain for consumers (although even Biden’s Treasury Secretary said last year that she doesn’t believe tariffs will “meaningfully” increase prices). But the cost of a flat-screen TV is nothing compared to the cost of losing a war.
Tariffs force companies to think twice about building factories in Shanghai instead of Ohio. They also bring in cash that we can pump into rebuilding our own industrial base. Back in 2018, we hit China with 10-25 percent tariffs, and guess what? Some folks started looking elsewhere for their widgets. It’s a start, but we must keep the pressure on.
To be sure, tariffs alone aren’t enough. The United States must bring manufacturing home. This is about owning our destiny. During World War II, we were the Arsenal of Democracy, cranking out tanks and planes faster than the enemy could blink. Today? We’re a shadow of that. Manufacturing is down to 11 percent of our workforce, and we’re begging for scraps from overseas. That is weakness, not strength.
Reshoring fixes three big problems. First, it protects American military tech from Chinese meddling. You hear stories about Chinese electronics with backdoors—think that’s not in our military hardware? I’d bet my pension it is. Build it here, we control the quality, we lock it down tight.
Second, reshoring gives us surge power. Look at Ukraine, burning through shells like there’s no tomorrow. We couldn’t keep up if we tried; our ammo plants are running on fumes. Reshoring steel, chemicals, and electronics means we can crank out what we need when we need it.
Third, reshoring fuels innovation. Our edge is our brainpower – Silicon Valley, DARPA, the works. Keep that close to home, and we’ll keep inventing the next game-changing technology, whether it’s hypersonic missiles or AI.
Long term, bringing our manufacturing sector home is how we stay free. A strong industrial base means we don’t need to beg for parts. It means jobs, money, and the muscle to keep our military the most powerful on the planet. A 2024 study found that reshoring just 10 percent of key industries could add $1 trillion to our economy in ten years. That’s new ships, new jets, new everything. Plus, it tells China we are not scared. They try to lean on us with an embargo, and we’ll just shrug and keep rolling. That’s deterrence, folks—making America’s adversaries think twice before they mess with us.
Sure, it’s not easy. Building factories takes time, money, and grit. We need workers who know their stuff, not just robots. Tariff policies must be smart, not a sledgehammer that ticks off our buddies like Japan or Canada. But the alternative is to keep letting China hold the whip hand. That’s a one-way ticket to second place – or worse.
Trump’s strategy of placing tariffs on China and reshoring our factories is not about politics or pocketbooks – it’s about survival. We can’t fight wars with empty hands, and we sure can’t trust a rival to keep our armory stocked. This is about making sure our troops have what they need, when they need it, no matter what. It’s about keeping America the land of the free, not the land of “please, sir, can you spare a microchip?”
Time to toughen up, bring it home, and show the world we’re still the ones calling the shots.
Rob Maness is a retired Air Force Colonel, a former wing and squadron commander, veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, a survivor of the 9/11 Pentagon Attack, Graduate of the U.S. Navy War College and Harvard Kennedy School, a former U.S. Senate Candidate, Chairman of GatorPAC, CEO and Owner of Iron Liberty Group LLC, and Host of the Rob Maness Show on WorldViewTube
Politicians are what got us into this situation. Labor costs and taxing corporations out of business is what sent American corporations elsewhere and no one wants to address that detail. Government, forced factories out of the country, they killed the skills here in America, labor costs will be front and center once again. Every time government gets involved, commerce has to find a new way to survive or go out of business. Americans love inexpensive Chinese stuff and just about anything and everything is made there. Tariffs are the first steps to safeguarding american businesses however, all the government red tape, permits, unions, payroll taxes, property taxes, environmental restrictions, licensing and just plain government permission is enough to take their businesses to more economically friendly places. Then the whole thing starts all over again.
NAFTA WAS THE PROBLEM! Read what Ross Perot had to say about NAFTA after he got wealthy because it was enacted. He weighed the benefits and said not so good for US in long run! Proved so true!
It is time that China and the Global elitist pay for what they have done to America!
Bring all goods we need for Security to be made in the US.
ALL
Spot on, and consistent with the reporting on this topic yesterday by NEWSMAX and/or RAV. The CCP isn’t stupid, and my fear is that they will become more aggressive before the USA can become self reliant (it’ll take far longer than DJT’s second term). In addition, with China halting rare earth minerals to the US, where else can President Trump turn for them?
Amen !
I think Wall Street deserves a very *substantial* amount of the “credit” for the 3+ decades past vis-à-vis the effective hollowing out of America’s industrial base. First time I’d ever heard then civilian Donald Trump interviewed was ≈ circa 2007. In those days, Wall Street “free trade”/offshoring ideologists were practically on hands and knees praying for PRC economic expansion. It was hugely nauseating. The American people were duped by Wall Street sellouts and their globalist inclined “expert” / “sophisticated” economics Ph.D counterparts that somehow shuttering tens of thousands of U.S. based manufacturing concerns and merrily offshoring the vast majority of those enterprises to the People’s Republic of China would be economically more efficient, a godsend to the American consumer, and as the people of mainland China became more prosperous as a result of the U.S. offshoring its industrial base to near oblivion, the totalitarian CCP would — of course(!) — lighten up and become more democratically inclined. Inconvenient topics such as the real potentiial for a medium to long term compromise to U.S. national security were rarely, if ever, included in their exceptionally “clever” arguments. Meanwhile, and at least as far back as 2007, Donald Trump was publicly railing against this sort of crackpot offshoring fever, even during an era when doing so was especially unfashionable. And President Trump has been 110% consistent on this issue ever since. And as the United States remains *overwhelmingly* the single largest and most attractive export market on the planet, Trump tariffs — assuming they ultimately do end up going sufficiently high enough — are very likely to eventually “persuade” more and more U.S. *and * other foreign multinationals, e.g., Volkswagen, that rely heavily on the U.S. consumer [perhaps even persuade some of the very most stubborn MNCs like Apple where, last time I checked, Apple depends on the U.S. consumer for at least 40% of its revenue while still manufacturing ≈ 90% of its iPhones in the PRC] . . . to [ahem] RELOCATE.
China YOU LOSE!
MAGA!
We must keep our secure by bring all vital components so China doesn’t how they are build and cripple America!
This compares closely to the fentanyl epidemic that killing thousands of Americans. We know exactly what needs to be done to stop it but we like our fentanyl and other drugs. If there wasn’t such a good market for these drugs they wouldn’t be here. If we were allowed to arrest and deport the drug dealers, they wouldn’t be here. Do illegal aliens who are dealing drugs and committing violent crimes have the same rights as American citizens? Do violent alien students here on a student visa have the same rights.
We like our cheap China goods. To bring back the manufacturing in America will take years. Prices will go up for almost everything. But we don’t have to cut China off completely. We can be selective. We need to produce what we need for national defense in sufficient numbers to keep us independent. We need to produce what will keep our infrastructure safe. We need to keep our people – Americans safe. We definitely need to be the prime source for those things we have to have. I don’t really care who makes toys, shirts or combs. I think tit for tat is appropriate for tariffs. We charge you for what you charge us. If you won’t let us sell our stuff in your country you shouldn’t be allowed to sell your stuff in ours. And if you apply an additional tax so should we.
If we want to make America Great Again we will have to make some sacrifices.
It seems that you sir are the IDIOT. Please explain you comment and thinking, if you think at all. You must be one of those left wing IDIOT’s. The left wing agenda is your religion and psychotic thinking. Go back to AARP where you belong. Other wise explain why Michael J is an idiot.