Robots, Tariffs, and a Wake-Up Call: America’s Moment to Lead Is Here

It started with a bang — not from the markets, but from the White House lawn.

On April 2, President Trump stepped into the Rose Garden and lit a fire under global trade.

He called it “Liberation Day” — a bold push to bring factories, jobs, and American muscle back where it belongs: right here at home.

Overnight, tariffs on Chinese goods jumped to 145%.

Vietnam and Indonesia followed.

The message was loud and clear:

It’s time to re-Americanize our supply chains and rebuild what we once led the world in — making things.

Now, some folks heard that and rolled their eyes.

They remembered Nike’s failed push to automate a U.S. shoe factory a few years back. The machines, built to assemble shoes the way robots build smartphones, couldn’t quite keep up.

Soft fabrics, ever-changing designs, and consumer demand for variety made it nearly impossible to fully automate.

After millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours, the dream was shelved. The factories moved back overseas.

It was humbling. But it wasn’t the end.

As I shared on April 14th, the path to reshoring is hard.

But as I showed again on April 21st — with stories of robots running marathons in Beijing and U.S. companies investing in smart automation — the winds are starting to shift.

Yes, Nike stumbled. But so did every innovator worth their salt.

Don’t Bet Against America

The same story is playing out in manufacturing today.

Sure, some jobs are hard to automate — like carefully gluing the sole of a shoe. But others?

They’re already being transformed.

Domino’s is testing delivery robots that bring hot pizza straight to your door.
Deere & Co. now offers fully autonomous tractors.
McDonald’s is testing robots that flip burgers and fry fries with perfect consistency.

The lesson here is simple: Don’t judge the future by yesterday’s failures.

Nike’s problem wasn’t just the tech — it was a business model stuck in the old way of thinking.

Custom, ever-changing designs weren’t built for machine precision. But times are changing.

Tariffs are making imports more expensive, so there’s now a real reason to design and build products in the U.S. using machines.

Robotics isn’t just a “nice-to-have.” It’s becoming the key to competitiveness.

And America is ready.

We’ve got deep capital markets. We’ve got the world’s most advanced chipmakers, automation engineers, and software platforms. And most of all, we’ve got the will to get back in the game.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said it plainly: The U.S. wants labor-intensive industries to come home. That doesn’t mean 1950s-style assembly lines.