Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Sen. Mark Kelly (Arizona).
Michael M. Santiago | Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Despite President Donald Trump’s promise of a manufacturing boom in his second administration, two Democratic senators argue in a letter to the administration, shared for the first time with CNBC, that the president’s policies are creating more hardship for American workers.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) sent a letter Monday to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Grier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick questioning President Trump’s trade policies and asking them to explain the country’s widening industrial goods trade deficit.
“Blue-collar jobs are being lost, and economists attribute this trend, at least in part, to the President’s historic and unstable tariff policies,” the lawmakers wrote. “The Trump administration’s trade policies have prioritized the interests of wealthy corporations and Trump supporters, leaving manufacturing workers behind.”
Spokespeople for Mr. Greer, Mr. Bessent and Mr. Lutnick did not respond to requests for comment.
Both Kerry and Warren are staunch opponents of President Trump’s tariffs, arguing, like most Democrats in Congress, that they amount to a tax on American consumers.
These tariffs, aimed at boosting U.S. manufacturing, have also led to fewer manufacturing jobs since President Trump took office in 2025 and recalibrated trade policy, according to a February analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by Democrats on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. The commission, of which Kelly serves, found that the U.S. economy lost 108,000 manufacturing jobs in the first year of President Trump’s second term.
Total construction spending in manufacturing is also down from its peak in summer 2024, according to the St. Louis Fed. And Warren and Kelly wrote that President Trump’s tariffs do not prevent jobs from moving offshore. They named Trump ally John Paulson, who is closing a brass instrument factory in Ohio and moving operations to China, and Whirlpool, which has cut nearly 500 jobs and expanded its footprint in Mexico since Trump imposed tariffs.
Meanwhile, data released by the Census Bureau in February showed that while the U.S.’s overall trade deficit with the rest of the world will narrow in 2025, its physical trade deficit has hit a record high.
“President Trump’s disastrous trade and economic policies are hurting American manufacturing and breaking his promises to workers and Americans,” Warren and Kelly wrote.
The Supreme Court in February struck down most of the tariffs imposed by President Trump, citing a 1977 federal law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, but the president responded by using another statutory authority to impose new import taxes. And it continues to sporadically impose tariffs, threatening to impose tariffs on areas deemed to have trade imbalances.
In their letter, Warren and Kelly asked Greer, Bessent and Lutnick to explain why the industrial goods deficit has increased under the Trump administration and how they plan to reverse the damage they say tariffs have done to the industry.
“While he campaigned on a promise to lower costs for American families ‘from day one,’ President Trump’s disastrous economic policies, including across-the-board IEEPA tariffs, have increased prices for American families and small businesses,” they wrote.
