Trump’s manufacturing 'boom' is busting badly —and leaving MAGA behind

Employees attend an event with U.S. Vice President JD Vance at Pointe Precision in Plover, Wisconsin, U.S., February 26, 2026.

Market analysts say American manufacturing is “showing signs of revival,” but only when considering industries at the forefront of the AI and energy boom, reports Axios. The traditional factory sector that President Donald Trump spent his campaign lauding and promising a real boom for … not so much.

“Factory output rose 0.3 percent in September despite a 3 percent drop in auto production — the latest evidence that the long-struggling sector is gaining momentum,” insists Axios. “The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index showed a ninth straight month of expansion, with new orders growing at a faster pace and backlogs of unfinished work mounting.”

Axios added however that the pickup in the headline manufacturing sector is not translating at all across the board hiring. Last month, five of the six largest manufacturing industries reported rising new orders, but only two — computers and electronics, and transportation equipment — actually reported increased employment, according to ISM.

National manufacturers may have added a net 40,000 jobs over the last 12 months, but the gains came entirely from advanced manufacturing, wrote Gad Levanon, chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute. Those industries, which including chemicals, transportation equipment, machinery, and computers and electronics, added 56,000 jobs over that period. Every other manufacturing industry combined lost 16,000 jobs, which Levanon said offset part of those gains.

This means the recovery is only happening in industries that make equipment for AI and energy buildout. In fact, employment outside advanced manufacturing is barely above its 2016 level, reflecting years of nagging stagnation across much of the factory sector, reported Axios.

Aside from being an embarrassing broken promise for President Donald Trump, who courted blue-collar workers throughout his campaign, the lopsided recovery “raises questions about how much of the sector stands to benefit,” said Axios, “especially as higher borrowing costs threaten to weigh on factories once again.”

Trump has added $2 trillion to America's budget deficit in 2026, swelling the ballooning debt to $40 trillion and sending economists into a panic over the math. While campaigning in 2024, Trump pledged that he would eliminate the entire national debt in just one term. And he insisted he’d do it without cutting “one penny” from Social Security or Medicare.

Meanwhile, American workers who voted for Trump are now questioning whether he cares to deliver on his promises to revive the manufacturing industry and prioritize blue-collar jobs and work. Many who voted for him based their entire vote on Trump’s proposed commitments to a thriving economy wonder.

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