"This is a fucking disaster": Generational Republican family loses 95-year-old mill to Trump's tariff mess

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://wtfdetective.blog/95-year-gop-mill-collapses-trump-tariff-chaos/

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.

____<

“When I say Liberation Day, I cannot put enough snark and sarcasm in my voice because we weren’t liberated,” Wilson said. The mill has been “mothballed,” but the 50 workers who depended on it were laid off. His frustration is plain: “Liberation Day… it did, at the time, it had damn near liberated me from our business. And in essence, it has. I’m bitter about that.”



On July 1, Wilson and his brother Stephen officially closed Mackeys Ferry. The breaking point, they say, was President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.


Asked what he would tell the president if Trump stood in his sawmill, Wilson didn’t hide his frustration.

“I’d like to say, What the heck? Actually, I’d like to say about nine different explanatives,” he said. “But… President Trump, gee, I understand what you’re trying to do, but you’re on a fool’s mission. And you’re not helping out a few. You’re hurting a lot.”

The White House declined to comment on the closure.

When asked whether they had voted for Trump, both brothers admitted they had—Wilson, all three times. He said the decision felt “disgusting,” and he regrets supporting Trump’s trade agenda, which he now sees as directly responsible for shutting down one of his family’s businesses.