Trump Donor's Factory Closes in Ohio, Undermining Manufacturing Revival Claims
Key Takeaways
- •The Conn Selmer plant in Eastlake, Ohio permanently closed at the end of June, displacing 150 workers with many jobs shifted to China.
- •The factory was owned by billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson, who publicly supported Trump's tariff policies despite his own company offshoring positions.
- •The U.S. manufacturing sector has lost approximately 75,000 jobs during Trump's second term, despite his promises of a manufacturing revival.
- •Analysts argue that the administration's tariff policies have caused more economic harm than benefit in efforts to repatriate jobs.
- •The decline in factory employment continues a decades-long trend driven by automation, globalization, and corporate restructuring that tariffs have struggled to reverse.
A factory owned by a prominent Donald Trump donor has shut down in Eastlake, Ohio, casting further doubt on the president's promises of an "economic revival" and the return of American manufacturing.
According to a Washington Post report published Saturday morning, the Conn Selmer plant — located in a 61-year-old building just east of Cleveland — permanently closed at the end of June. The facility had been a subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments until its acquisition in 2013.
"At a time when the president of the United States said the country was in the midst of a manufacturing renaissance, the 150 people who still worked at the plant were losing their jobs, and seeing many of them offshored to China," the Post report detailed.
The plant was among the holdings of billionaire hedge-fund owner John Paulson, whose firm acquired Steinway more than a decade ago. Paulson emerged as a vocal supporter of Trump during his 2024 campaign and publicly endorsed the president's tariff agenda.
"What you see is a hollowed-out American manufacturing base. And we need to protect American jobs and protect American manufacturing," Paulson said during a September 2024 CNBC appearance. "We can't have Americans — American producers closing American factories and offshoring."
The manufacturing "renaissance" Trump has touted has yet to materialize. Recent data indicates the sector has lost approximately 75,000 jobs during his second term. Tariff policies have drawn the bulk of the criticism, with analysts arguing that their erratic implementation has caused more economic harm than benefit in repatriating jobs. The losses continue a decades-long contraction in U.S. factory employment that predates the current administration, driven by automation, globalization, and corporate restructuring — dynamics that tariffs alone have struggled to reverse.
As the Post noted, Trump has long pledged to prevent U.S. factory closures, though tangible results have been limited.
"All of those bad things that you had to suffer with, you're not suffering anymore, because now people and companies have an incentive to stay," Trump told workers at an appliance factory in 2020. "They're not going to be leaving so fast. I want to make sure these companies aren't leaving."
"Together we will reclaim our nation's destiny as the number one manufacturing superpower in the world," Trump declared during an August 2024 reelection campaign rally. "We will do it, and China won't even be close. Nobody will be."