One Voice | Government Advocacy for the Metalworking Industry

We're going to start the program today looking at a couple of the president's moves this week that upended past policies and shocked even allies and supporters. On Thursday, he signed orders to impose steep new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, that against the objection of many members of his own party. And in the same day, the president said he had accepted an invitation to meet face-to-face with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. We'll look at both of these in turn. And we're going to start with the tariffs.

Now, this was something President Trump promoted during his campaign, but the steel came as a shock to some allies, the financial markets and even some supporters. Normally a decision like this comes after a long period of negotiation and consultation. So in the absence of that, we've been canvassing people who are directly connected to those industries to get their perspectives. We were reminded that President George W. Bush imposed tariffs on steel in 2002, which he then rolled back a year later. We were looking for people who remember the impact of that decision, and we found P.J. Thompson. He is the president and second-generation owner of Trans-Matic Manufacturing. That's a metal stamping company out of Holland, Mich. We reached him at the Precision Metalforming Association's annual conference in Tucson, Ariz.

P.J. Thompson, thanks so much for stepping out of the conference to talk to us for a couple minutes.

P.J. THOMPSON: Thanks for having me.

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