Trump Didn’t Save Coal or Steel. To Be Fair, No One Could.

Remember when President Donald Trump promised to revive the coal industry? When he vowed to “put our miners back to work” during his 2016 campaign trips to coal country? When he said he would end “the war on coal?” A half-dozen times after becoming president, Trump signed bills and executive orders that were supposed to save the industry, always with coal miners standing behind him, applauding his promise to bring coal back.

It hasn’t exactly worked out that way. According to a recent article in the New York Times, 145 coal-burning units at 75 power plants have been idled during Trump’s time in office (“the fastest decline in coal-fuel capacity in any single presidential term”). Power generated from coal has dropped from 31% to 20%. Coal production is down 34% (“the largest four-year drop in production since at least 1932”). And some 5,000 coal miners — nearly 10% of the workforce — have lost their jobs while Trump has been president. Not only has Trump not brought back the coal industry, he hasn’t even been able to slow its decline.

Remember when Trump said he was going to revive the steel industry? “Steel, we’re bringing back,” he told supporters in Pittsburgh during his first presidential campaign. In 2018, he imposed 25% tariffs on steel imports from China, Europe, Canada and Mexico, arguing that making imported steel more expensive would cause domestically produced steel to become more competitive.