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.
His family owns two lumber mills: they’ve only had to close one of them, the other is still going full-blast.
following close behind
Even if the second mill closes, so what? His family has been running multiple businesses for generations, there’ll be enough there for him to retire in comfort, and likely enough to give his kids a couple legs up in their own lives.