At the end of the day, even if we somehow recreate a manufacturing base from scratch, where would we get employees? The labor markets are the tightest they've been in 20+ years and manufacturing jobs rank among the least desirable.
Rounding homeless and drug addicts of the street and putting them to work? Maybe. That doesn't exactly speak to quality products other countries will want to buy.
Taking people en masse off of social security and disability? That might make sense from a financial standpoint, but it would be political suicide.
In an ideal world, we'd get employees from the ranks of the under-employed: gig workers, Uber drivers, people working multiple part-time jobs.
That would create a shortage in the labor market in those areas, but we'd find ways to adapt: automation, public transportation, etc. There could be a net gain, where the new manufacturing products produce more net income, and we'd be able to afford better conditions for the remaining Uber drivers etc.
And yeah, maybe some people would avoid becoming homeless drug addicts if they had a reliable manufacturing job available.
Or... not. It seems wildly unlikely that we'll build a whole bunch of factories that depend on a wildly erratic tariff schedule. And even if they do, the circumstances don't seem likely to produce "reliable manufacturing jobs" when those jobs left the US a long time ago precisely because people didn't want to pay for them.
Don't let Trump know I suggested this but if Mexico were the 52nd state then they would be US citizens and could pick up the labor market. We just need to build more railroads.
How about USONA, The United States of North America?
Plenty of labor and resources.
No real borders to patrol/fence, except one with Colombia. An interstate commerce bonanza.
I love it. Let's make it happen! To appease the people that wanted a wall can we put all the violent criminals from all of the United States of North America onto an island with limited resources they must fight over? Kindof an extension of an idea from Sean Lock RIP [1]
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TPG80boMjY [video][3 mins][humor]
If you do that, Mexico will inherit US labor laws, and workers will suddenly become very expensive. Less than white collar, but still expensive. Low cost manufacturing is built on exploiting weak labor laws in other countries.
Does the US really have a shortage of people willing to work at factories? Honest question.
According to Trump, Americans yearn to labor in the mines and the factories. So there should be no shortage of people eager to do the work, at any wage.