Trump's "Buy American" EO: A Real Step Forward, But the Tariff Fight's Far From Won

By Tucker McAllister | Circus of Power | May 10, 2026

Back in Millbrook, Ohio, the day the Delco plant shuttered in 2016 still feels like yesterday. I'd walk down Main Street, past the boarded-up windows and the guys nursing coffees at the diner, talking about how Chinese imports had undercut everything we built our lives on. "Tariffs," they'd say, "that's what we need—make 'em pay for flooding our markets." Fast forward a decade, and here we are in 2026, with President Trump doubling down on that promise. Yesterday, he signed Executive Order 14392, slamming the door on federal agencies buying foreign junk under the guise of "exceptions." No more loopholes, no more fake "Made in USA" labels from overseas sweatshops. It's a gut-check moment for America First, but as the tariff saga drags on—with job numbers lagging and a botched Supreme Court ruling forcing $159 billion in refunds—I'm left wondering: Is this the revival we were promised, or just another round in the swamp's endless shell game?

Don't get me wrong; this EO is the kind of plain-talking policy that hits home for folks like us in the Rust Belt. Trump laid it out bluntly in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by steelworkers from Pennsylvania and autoworkers from Michigan. "Our Country was DEAD before I got here," he said, pounding the podium. "I SAVED IT through strong Tariffs." He's not wrong about the rot. When I was mayor, we lost 2,000 jobs at Delco to offshoring—good union gigs making auto parts that ended up stamped "Made in China" for pennies on the dollar. The federal government, with its bloated procurement budget of over $600 billion a year, has been complicit, waiving "Buy American" rules for everything from military gear to office supplies. Under the old setup, agencies could dodge domestic sourcing if it was "too expensive" or "impractical." Translation: They shipped our tax dollars to Beijing while Millbrook's factories gathered dust.

The EO changes that. It mandates strict enforcement across all federal buys, from the Pentagon's hardware to the post office's trucks. Close those loopholes on labeling scams—where foreign goods get a U.S. sticker slapped on—and prioritize American steel, aluminum, and components. The White House claims this builds on the first glimmers of a manufacturing comeback: +130,000 jobs in the sector during the first quarter of 2026, the first positive growth in three years. That's not hay. In places like my old stomping grounds, it means potential contracts flowing back to domestic plants, reviving supply chains that crumbled under NAFTA and China's WTO entry. Trump tied it directly to the broader tariff push, blasting Democrats for trying to steal credit on steel tariffs. When Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) tweeted about bipartisan wins in blocking Chinese worker abuse, Trump fired back: "BULLSHT... Sleazebag." Harsh, but fair—Khanna's right to call out exploitation, but the heavy lifting on tariffs started with Trump's first term, not some feel-good congressional pat on the back.

Yet here's the rub, and why I'm not popping champagne just yet: The tariff saga is a mixed bag at best, and the data doesn't lie. A new study from Asia Times lays it out cold—parts of Trump's tariffs have been ruled illegal by trade courts, and U.S. manufacturing employment is down 82,000 jobs since his second inauguration. That's not the "roaring back" the administration touts; it's a stall-out. Politico reports that one year after the so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs kicked in, factories are still waiting for the boom. The Heritage Center for Something Something—or HCSS, as the eggheads call it—echoes that: No real revival yet, just promises amid supply chain snarls. And then there's the Supreme Court gut-punch. In a ruling Trump called "botched," the justices mandated $159 billion in refunds to importers hit by the tariffs. "Would have saved America 159 Billion Dollars!" Trump raged on Truth Social. He's spot on—that money could've funded infrastructure, job training, or tax cuts for the working stiffs footing the bill for this mess.

Critics will holler that tariffs are just a tax on consumers, jacking up prices for everything from TVs to washing machines. I've heard it from the free-trade crowd since my first campaign: "Protectionism kills innovation," they say, sipping lattes in D.C. think tanks. Sure, prices ticked up 2-3% on some goods post-tariffs, per Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, but that's chump change compared to the wage suppression we've endured. When Chinese steel floods in at dumped prices—subsidized by their government—American mills close, and suddenly you're competing with labor that makes $2 an hour. In Millbrook, that meant not just lost jobs, but lost communities: Kids dropping out, opioids creeping in, and a Main Street that looks like a ghost town. The counterargument ignores the real cost: A $300 billion trade deficit with China that bleeds us dry. Tariffs aren't perfect, but they're a negotiating hammer. Without them, we'd still be begging Beijing for fair play while they laugh all the way to the bank.

This EO couldn't come at a better time, with the Trump-Xi summit looming in Beijing next week. China’s already signaling they'll push hard on Taiwan and dismiss our trade gripes as "unfair." Trump's agenda—more soybean buys from our farmers, bans on Chinese EVs clogging our roads, and crackdowns on their firms abusing workers here—needs teeth. The "Buy American" mandate gives him leverage: Show Xi we're serious about keeping federal dollars at home, and maybe he'll blink on market access. But if the summit flops, expect more offshoring, more deficits, and more pain for towns like Millbrook. Oil prices rose less than 1% today amid stable global supply reports—but that's nothing compared to the slow bleed of jobs to Asia.

Public sentiment on X tells the story too. #BuyAmerican is trending with over 30,000 views, posts from accounts like @EricLDaugh blasting the SCOTUS ruling as a "botched" giveaway to globalists, and @nicksortor cheering the EO as "destroying loopholes." It's raw, working-class frustration: Folks aren't seeing the boom yet, but they're hungry for it. Semantic searches show clusters around "US politics and tariffs," with high engagement on videos of Trump rallies chanting "Made in America." Even some Dems like Khanna are on board with parts of it—stopping Chinese abuse—but the partisan sniping, like Trump's "sleazebag" jab, just muddies the water.

Look, I'm no blind optimist. As a pragmatist who spent 12 years wrangling budgets in a dying factory town, I know policy takes time to trickle down. But this EO is a concrete win, a firewall against the swamp's love affair with free trade. It addresses the ignored truth: Washington's been buying foreign for decades, enriching Wall Street while Ohio crumbles. The tariff refunds sting, and the job numbers are underwhelming, but enforcing "Buy American" rigorously could spark what the tariffs started—real investment in our people.

So here's my call: Congress, quit grandstanding and back this up with legislation. No more waivers, no more delays. Mr. President, use that summit to hammer home the deal: Open your markets, or we keep our dollars. And to the folks in Millbrook and beyond—keep the pressure on. We've waited too long for America to buy American. It's time to make it stick, before another plant closes and another dream dies.

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Tucker McAllister is a former mayor of Millbrook, Ohio and writes on trade, immigration, and working-class America.

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