Jones is the fifth generation in his family to run a lumber business, and the first to close a mill. He also voted for President Donald Trump. That matters to him because the policy he blames for the shutdown came from a president he once believed would protect people like him.
“I’ve grown all my life in the lumber business,” the mill owner in his sixties said to Bloomberg, adding, “To hear nature at a sawmill, that’s not normal for a lumberman. I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but it’s as unsettling as watching a loved one take their last breath.”
Jones says the culprit was Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, announced on April 2, 2025. They were promoted as a plan to bring American manufacturing jobs back. Jones feels bitterness and disbelief when he talks about that day.
“When I mention Liberation Day, I can’t express enough sarcasm because we weren’t liberated,” he said. “Liberation Day nearly liberated me from my business.”
What happened at Mackeys Ferry is not a unique story. It reflects a trend in mills, factories, and plants throughout the country. Since Trump’s tariff announcement in April, manufacturing jobs have dropped by tens of thousands. Job openings and new hires have both decreased, even as companies show uncertainty about the future.
Trump promised something else because on “Liberation Day,” he claimed, “Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.”
When Mackeys Ferry closed, 50 workers lost their jobs. Only 10 accepted positions at the Jones brothers’ other mill about an hour away. The rest had to scramble for new careers, new towns, or just a way to move on after losing jobs from which many expected to retire from.
“From the guy stacking lumber to the one sawing, they don’t care about the mill owner,” Jones said. “What about those guys?”
Economists have tried to quantify what Jones describes in human terms. Estimates suggest that creating or protecting a single manufacturing job through tariffs can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, indirectly paid by American businesses and consumers through higher prices.
One main issue, analysts say, is that tariffs raise costs for American manufacturers that need imported materials. For every job in steel production, there are many jobs in industries that use steel. When prices rise, those dependent jobs feel it first.
Lumber has faced significant challenges because tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber have risen to about 45 percent, even though the U.S. depends on Canada for about 30 percent of its supply. For mills like Mackeys Ferry, that pressure was impossible to manage.
Jones has thought about what he would say if Trump ever entered the quiet building where saws once roared.
“President Trump, I understand what you’re trying to do,” he said. “But you’re chasing a lost cause. You’re not just hurting a few; you’re hurting a lot.”
