{"id":9831,"date":"2025-05-25T08:46:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T08:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=9831"},"modified":"2025-05-25T08:46:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T08:46:25","slug":"trump-wants-to-create-manufacturing-jobs-his-tech-allies-invest-in-robots-to-do-the-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=9831","title":{"rendered":"Trump wants to create manufacturing jobs. His tech allies invest in robots to do the work."},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump has disrupted<\/a> global trade and roiled<\/a> markets in an effort to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Some of his top tech allies, however, have backed ventures that replace human workers with robots.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk, a top donor and adviser to Trump, has touted humanoid robots as a future growth area for electric-carmaker Tesla. “You can produce any product,\u201d Musk said of the robots\u2019 potential capacity during a February interview with Dubai’s World Governments Summit.<\/p>\n

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who Trump last month called \u201cterrific,\u201d has invested in several advanced robotics firms.<\/p>\n

Bezos last year poured funds into Figure, a humanoid robot company that says its initial rollout will focus on manufacturers and warehouses, among other business applications. \u201cWe believe humanoids will revolutionize a variety of industries,\u201d the company says on its website.<\/p>\n

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman \u2013 both of whom joined Trump on his recent trip to the Middle East \u2013 helmed their respective companies as each invested in Figure. OpenAI ended its partnership with Figure last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is talking about bringing back the jobs, and he\u2019s not understanding the tension between that goal and automation, which the tech bros have enthusiasm for,\u201d Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University and a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, told ABC News. \u201cThere\u2019s a fundamental conflict between those goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk did not immediately respond to ABC News\u2019 request for comment made through Musk-owned firm SpaceX. Neither Bezos, Huang nor Altman responded to ABC News\u2019 request.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a conference in April, Huang said the onset of artificial intelligence would fuel “new types of factories,” which in turn would create jobs in construction and steelmaking, as well as in trades such as plumbing and electricity.<\/p>\n

Even more, Huang said, AI is set to trigger a surge in productivity at companies that adopt the new technology, allowing them to add employees as the firms increase output and revenue.<\/p>\n

“New jobs will be created, some jobs will be lost, every job will be changed,” Huang said. “Remember, it’s not AI that’s going to take your job. It’s not AI that’s going to destroy your company. It’s the company and the person who uses AI that’s going to take your job. And so that’s something to internalize.”<\/p>\n

Even after a rollback of some levies, consumers face the highest overall average effective tariff rate since 1934, the Yale Budget Lab<\/a> found earlier this month.<\/p>\n

A key reason for the tariffs, White House officials say: Reshoring factories and rejuvenating employment in the manufacturing industry.<\/p>\n

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said this month in an interview with Fox News that Trump’s vision for ushering in a “golden age” for America involved enticing manufacturers to open factories and build in the United States.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to have huge jobs in manufacturing. You’ve heard the president talk about trillions and trillions of factories being built in America,” he said in the interview on May 11.<\/p>\n

In response to ABC News’ request for comment, White House Spokesperson Kush Desai said “the importance of President Trump\u2019s push to reinvigorate American industry goes beyond creating good-paying jobs for everyday Americans.”<\/p>\n

“Supply chain shocks of critical pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and semiconductors during the COVID era prove that America cannot rely on foreign imports. The Trump administration remains committed to reshoring manufacturing that\u2019s critical to our national and economic security with a multifaceted approach of tariffs, tax cuts, rapid deregulation, and domestic energy production,” Desai added.<\/p>\n

The share of U.S. workers in manufacturing has plummeted for decades. Roughly 8% of U.S. workers currently hold positions in manufacturing, which marks a steep decline from about a quarter of all employees as recently as 1970.<\/p>\n

Researchers attribute such decline to overlapping trends, including the offshoring of manufacturing to low-wage markets overseas and the adoption of labor-saving technology throughout the sector.<\/p>\n

Long before current advances, automation significantly increased productivity in U.S. factories, meaning the same number of workers could produce many more goods, researchers at Ball State University found<\/a> in 2015. As a result, they said, manufacturing employment stagnated for decades even as output climbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAutomation is something we\u2019ve seen for a long time,\u201d Philipp Kircher, a professor of industrial and labor relations at Cornell University, told ABC News.<\/p>\n

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CEO of Meta and Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attend the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool via AFP via Getty Images, FILE<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Some of Trump\u2019s tech allies have backed firms that seek to further automate manufacturing, touting a new wave of artificial-intelligence equipped robots as a replacement for some workers and salve for labor shortages.<\/p>\n

Robotics outfit Vicarious boasts $250 million in investments from a set of backers that includes Bezos, Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg \u2013 all of whom flanked Trump during his inauguration.<\/p>\n

On a webpage<\/a> displaying photos of robots for use in warehouse settings, Vicarious tells potential clients that the products can \u201creduce both your costs and person-hour needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, Vicarious was acquired by Alphabet-backed robotics software firm Intrinsic. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai also sat alongside tech leaders at Trump\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n

Alphabet did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Meta declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Yong Suk Lee, a professor of economics and technology at the University of Notre Dame, described the views on automation among Trump\u2019s tech allies and some of his trade advisers as \u201copposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tech position, Lee said, would likely win out, even if some firms do open plants in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to reshore, are you going to pay the same wages as Vietnam? Probably not,\u201d Lee said. \u201cCompanies are faced with higher labor costs. In that case, they\u2019ll probably automate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discordant views among some tech leaders and White House officials surfaced<\/a> in April, when Musk sharply criticized tariff-advocate Peter Navarro, Trump\u2019s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. Navarro, Musk said, is \u201ctruly a moron.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with CNBC, Navarro responded, saying Musk “isn’t a car manufacturer \u2014 he’s a car assembler.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, analysts said, automation in manufacturing would likely continue regardless of support from Trump\u2019s tech allies, since producers are locked in a competition to lower costs and increase output. The precise outlook for manufacturing employment is unclear, they added, since additional technology may add jobs for those maintaining and optimizing the machinery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s the companies that currently support the U.S. president or not, somebody would be doing this innovation, maybe slightly slower,\u201d Kircher said.<\/p>\n

Even at current employment levels, a labor shortage bedevils U.S. manufacturers. Roughly one of every five U.S. factories that failed to produce at full capacity cited a shortage of workers, Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, found in a January study<\/a> analyzing government data.<\/p>\n

Agility Robots, an Amazon-backed firm building humanoid robots, identifies the current push for rejuvenated U.S. manufacturing as an opportunity for greater adoption of technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cManufacturing companies are seeing a massive reshoring movement spanning various industries,\u201d Agility Robots says on its website. \u201cAdding a humanoid robot to your manufacturing facility is a great way to stay on the leading edge of automation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to ABC News’ request for comment, an Amazon spokesperson pointed to previous remarks about robotics made by a company executive.<\/p>\n

“Our goal is to ensure these systems improve safety and productivity. Technology should be used to help us retain and grow our talent through skill development and reimagining how we make our workplace better, both in productivity and safety. If we do this well, we\u2019re certain to always innovate for our customers,” Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics, said in a September blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amazon has “created more U.S. jobs in the last decade than any other company,” Amazon said<\/a> this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump has disrupted global trade and roiled markets in an effort to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Some of his top tech allies, however, have backed ventures that replace human workers with robots. Elon Musk, a top donor and adviser to Trump, has touted humanoid robots as a future growth area […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9833,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9831\/revisions\/9833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}