Trump's Commerce Secretary Says Future of American Manufacturing is 'Tradecraft' Jobs That Only Require High School Education

Trump’s Commerce Secretary Says Future of American Manufacturing is ‘Tradecraft’ Jobs That Only Require High School Education

President Donald Trump’s push to bring back manufacturing to the U.S. from abroad has forced major companies to rethink their entire business models and invest in the country.

Earlier this year, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced plans to invest $500 billion in the U.S. to expand its manufacturing in the country, while Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) said last month that it will produce AI servers worth up to $500 billion in the U.S. Other major tech giants, including Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, GOOGL)) and IBM (NYSE:IBM), have also announced their U.S. investment plans.

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In an interview with CNBC last month, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick talked about the progress the Trump administration has made so far in reshoring key manufacturing. Lutnick said the U.S. needs to cut its reliance on foreign manufacturing for national security and economic progress.

Asked how the U.S. would secure the workforce needed for manufacturing, Lutnick said community colleges need to start training people for “jobs of the future” based on a “new model” where American families would work in major manufacturing plants.

“It’s time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future,” Lutnick said. “You know, this is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here.”

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Lutnick called his proposed model the “future” of American manufacturing and said it would create job opportunities with salaries starting around $80,000 and rising to as much as $200,000.

“This is tradecraft. This is high school-educated, great jobs that start in the 80s and 90s and go up to one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand dollars,” according to Lutnick. “We are going to drive the high-value, high-performance jobs to America.”

Lutnick’s model assumes that the “rest of the world” will make “low-value” products and sell to the U.S. “inexpensively,” he said.

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When asked about the potential impact of automation and robotics on manufacturing, Lutnick said that even highly automated plants need humans to operate and fix equipment.

“What you’re going to see is a highly automated plant that employs three thousand people per plant,” he said. “You’ve got to remember these plants, all these automated arms and stuff. They need to be fixed. They all need a technician to fix them.”

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Lutnick emphasized that bringing critical manufacturing back to the U.S. has national security significance, adding that without domestic semiconductor production, the country cannot build drones or fighter jets for its defense.

He also highlighted the importance of automobile manufacturing, connecting it to the production of military equipment.

“Why do you need to make autos? Because if you decide you want to make tanks and you want to make trucks and in military, if you don’t have steel, if you don’t have aluminum, if you don’t have cars, you know what you are? You’re nowhere,” he said.

Americans are scrambling to buy new cars as Trump’s tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts are expected to drive up prices. Some analysts estimate the tariff impact to range from $2,000 to $15,000 per vehicle in the U.S.