Manufacturing CEO: Expect Trump tariffs to become ‘game changers’ for saving American jobs
Family-owned business Electric Mirror reverses plans to move overseas, commits to expanding U.S. production amid trade policy reforms
EVERETT, Wash. — The Trump Administration tariffs have saved American manufacturers struggling to keep blue-collar jobs in the U.S. from moving production overseas, according to Electric Mirror CEO Jim Mischel, whose industry has been hit hard by unfair trade practices from China and other countries.
Mischel says the tariffs and push for fairer trade agreements have enabled his midsize family-owned business to continue creating American jobs.
“These policies allow Electric Mirror to continue manufacturing in America, where we began and want to stay,” Mischel wrote in a Washington Times op-ed titled “Trump’s tariffs are saving our factory from moving overseas,” published May 1, 2025.
“At the start of 2025, we were considering moving our factory overseas. Now, we plan to build a new factory in the United States.”
This week a Newsmax “National Report” video interview of Mischel, which has earned thousands of views, highlighted Mischel’s claim that the “tariffs and push for fairer trade agreements, especially with China, have been game changers.”
The manufacturing sector has faced significant challenges from foreign competition, particularly from China, where government subsidies and intellectual property theft have undermined American businesses.
Mischel says administrations on the left and right have watched silently while China and other countries have copied and undercut American ingenuity for years, with companies like Electric Mirror and their employees paying the price.
“We’ve spent millions trying to defend our intellectual property, including working with the International Trade Commission,” Mischel wrote.
“But foreign companies continue unjustly profiting from our designs — at the expense of blue-collar Americans struggling to make ends meet.”
The current tariff strategy is confronting these unjust trade practices, restoring fairness in the marketplace, and saving American manufacturing jobs.
Newsmax “National Report” anchor Emma Rechenberg highlighted Mischel’s realistic conclusion:
“You may not like tariffs. I don’t either. Still, there are moments in history when they are a tool necessary to restore fairness to the marketplace. This is one of those moments.”
Founded in 1997, Electric Mirror began in the Mischel family’s garage in Lynnwood, Washington. Their first invention was a simple mirror defogger, which gradually allowed them to innovate and patent 70 technologies they designed from the ground up. The company has grown to provide livelihoods for 440 families and is a global leader in mirror technology with products in more than 1 million hotel rooms worldwide.
