FOX Business host Larry Kudlow discusses President Donald Trump’s steel tariffs and more on ‘The Bottom Line.

For the first time since the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930, tariffs are not just a tool of U.S. economic policy — they’re its most expansive and aggressively used tool. So far, markets have responded harshly to a costly gamble aimed at reviving American industrial might.

Even if trade barriers eventually succeed at bringing back some jobs, the gains won’t stick unless we reform antiquated labor policies. Otherwise, we risk rebuilding factories only to watch them shrink under the same outdated union-bargaining system that hollowed them out in the first place.

Look no further than Boeing. The company announced it would shrink its workforce by 10%, mostly at commercial airliner manufacturing sites, mere weeks after reaching a new agreement with its machinists union. The settlement ended tensions but added major cost burdens. Workers who cheered the deal now sadly face pink slips.

Striking Boeing workers hold rally at the Boeing Portland Facility in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 19, 2024. (Jordan Gale/AFP via / Getty Images)

Or consider Stellantis, which slashed more than 1,000 jobs at its Jeep plant in Ohio just months after United Auto Workers secured hefty raises through a costly strike. The ink had barely dried before layoffs arrived, as the automaker scrambled to maintain profitability amid escalating wage bills.

US TRADE WITH THE EU IS OUT OF WHACK. TRUMP NEEDS TO STAY TOUGH ON TARIFFS TO FIX IT

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