Trump voter and Montana Knife Co. founder feels tariff pain: His $515,000 sharpener from Germany is set to cost another $77,250
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“We’re getting squeezed from all sides,’’ said Justin Johnson, president of Jordan Manufacturing Co. in Belding, Michigan, northeast of Grand Rapids. His grandfather founded the company in 1949.
The company, which makes parts used by Amazon warehouses, auto companies and aerospace firms, has seen the price of a key raw material — steel coil — rise 5% to 10% this year.
Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Jordan Manufacturing doesn’t buy foreign steel. But by crippling foreign compe ion, Trump’s tariffs have allowed domestic U.S. steelmakers to hike prices.
Johnson doesn’t blame them. “There’s no red-blooded capitalist who isn’t going to raise his prices’’ under those cir stances, he said.
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Josh Smith, founder and president of Montana Knife Co., called himself a Trump voter but said he sees the tariffs on foreign steel and other goods as threatening his business.
For instance, Smith just ordered a $515,000 machine from Germany that grinds his knife blades to a sharp edge. Trump had imposed a 10% tax on products from the EU that is set to rise to 15% under the trade framework he announced Sunday. So Trump’s tax on the machine comes to $77,250 — about enough for Smith to hire an entry-level worker.
Smith would happily buy the bevel-grinding machines from an American supplier. But there aren’t any. “There’s only two companies in the world that make them, and they’re both in Germany,’’ Smith said.
Then there’s imported steel, which Trump is taxing at 50%. Until this year, Montana Knife bought the powdered steel it needs from Crucible Industries in Syracuse, New York. But Crucible declared bankruptcy last December, and its assets were purchased by a Swedish firm, Erasteel, which moved production to Sweden.
Smith beat the tariffs by buying a year’s worth of the steel in advance. But starting in 2026, the specialty steel he’ll be importing from Sweden is set to be hit with a 50% duty.
“The average American is not sitting in the position I am, looking at the numbers I am and making the decisions each day, like, ‘Hey, we cannot hire those extra few people because we might have to pay this tariff on this steel or this tariff on this grinder,’” he said. “I want to buy more equipment and hire more people. That’s what I want to do.”
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