They Voted for Trump. His Tariffs Took Down Their Family-Owned Sawmill

For years, Mackeys Ferry Sawmill in North Carolina relied on exporting its goods to China and Vietnam after a dip in domestic demand for high-quality hardwood. But President Donald Trump’s trade war with China dealt a blow that the mill’s owners say they couldn’t come back from. In July, just months after the president announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, they decided to shut it down. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg economics reporter Shawn Donnan goes to the “Old North State” to understand the ripple effect of tariffs on one of the oldest industries in America and how the mill’s owner feels about Trump and his policies, one year after voting for him in the ballot booth. Listen more: The Most Worrying — and Reassuring — Signals in the US Economy Hosted by David Gura; Produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky; Reported by Shawn Donnan; Edited by Aaron Edwards. Fact-checking by Eleanor Harrison-Dengate and Dina Katgara; Engineering by Alex Sugiura.  Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer. Photo by Rachael Lewis-Krisky.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.