Trump’s Own Aides Keep Him in State of Delusion About Tariff Fiasco

There may be a structural explanation for these divides, says Richard Yeselson, a veteran labor analyst who has written perceptively about the nonwhite working class. Yeselson points out that as a general matter, working-class whites have tended to be more concentrated in heavy manufacturing and extractive industries, whereas working-class nonwhites often tend to have jobs in health care, service, retail, warehouse work, wholesale delivery trucking, and the like.

Many among the former might be inclined to think tariffs will protect their jobs (that’s actually not true, but put that aside for now). The latter, by contrast, might see their occupations as unlikely to gain from restrictions on trade, Yeselson notes.

“The nonwhite working class are disproportionately working in those industries where they perceive they’re not going to get a benefit,” Yeselson tells me. “If you’re working in an Amazon warehouse, Amazon is getting all these 50-inch televisions and iPhones from China. Those will not only be more expensive for consumers, but Amazon is already canceling some of these orders altogether. That’s bad news for port truck drivers and warehouse workers who are disproportionately nonwhite.”