What Trump's industrial policy will look like

The bipartisan Ships for America legislation offers a glimpse into the likely focus of the next administration.

- Rana Foroohar

In his first term as president, Donald Trump talked about bolstering US manufacturing but did little to support it. Industrial policy has been President Joe Biden's thing, and conventional wisdom is that Trump will spend some of his first few months in office dismantling government support for industries such as semiconductors and electric vehicles.

But I would argue that's a red herring. Trump may, in fact, bring his own kind of industrial policy to a second term, one focused particularly on the intersection of security and commerce.

This week, we'll get the first glimpse of what such a policy might look like, with the introduction of the bipartisan Ships for America Act, co-sponsored by politicians including Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, and Republican congressman Mike Waltz, Trump's incoming national security adviser. Like many pro-labour left-wing Democrats, Mr Waltz believes passionately that the US needs to rebuild its shipping industry as part of its broader efforts to combat Chinese economic and security power.

It's a rare thing for an incoming senior aide who has been in Congress to co-sponsor a Bill right before leaving. It speaks to the fact that many people set to join the new administration think government should support efforts to rebuild America's industrial base. These include Mr Waltz, incoming secretary of state Marco Rubio, future US trade representative Jamieson Greer and economic adviser Peter Navarro.