Donald Trump has made revitalizing manufacturing—specifically the U.S. steel industry—a core part of his pitch to voters in Rust Belt swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
“We are going to put American-produced steel back into the backbone of our country,” he said at one speech at a scrap-metal plant near Pittsburgh. “This alone will create massive numbers of jobs.”
Unions and contractors, though, say that Trump-branded structures for years have used large quantities of imported steel and that Mr. Trump appears to have no record of preferring U.S.-made steel for projects that bear his name.
“He doesn’t direct his people to buy American steel, but it’s not just steel,” said Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers union, which opposes Mr. Trump’s candidacy. “Furnishings are made in places like China and Bangladesh.”