For years, Mackeys Ferry Sawmill in North Carolina depended on overseas buyers in China and Vietnam after domestic demand for premium hardwood declined. But when President Donald Trump launched his escalating trade war, the mill’s owners say the damage was immediate and ultimately irreversible. By July—just months after Trump declared his “Liberation Day” tariffs—they made the decision to shut the operation down entirely.
In a recent episode of the Big Take podcast, Bloomberg economics correspondent Shawn Donnan traveled to the “Old North State” to trace how one of America’s oldest trades was shaken by Trump’s tariff battles, and to hear how the mill’s owners now feel about the president they once supported at the ballot box.
"I lost my job, my house, and most of my friends. My kids won’t talk to me, my retirement is wiped out, and I have to pass through 12 armed checkpoints to go anywhere in town.
But I’m also seeing fewer people putting pronouns in their bio, so I guess it was all worth it."