The administration argues that relying on imported metals could reduce demand for American-made materials, leaving the US with less domestic production and fewer critical supplies in the event of a national emergency.
And because brass instruments are made mostly from copper and zinc, they have been swept into the same net as fire extinguishers, floor safes, electrical cables, welding-machine parts, and tanker trailers.
🤯
Does Trump have any brass instrument investments? This feels like an episode of The Goon Show… (In “Lurgi Strikes Britain”, the fictional Lurgi/Lurgy illness is used to boost sales of brass band instruments, which supposedly protect against the disease.)
John Paulson, a major Trump supporter, has an investment firm that owns musical instrument manufacturer Conn-Selmer. Probably just mere coincidence.
Which makes little sense because Conn-Selmer doesn’t just manufacture brass instruments and saxophones, they also exclusively import a lot of the European and Asian “alternatives” (i.e. illusions of choice). The Selmer (not Selmer (USA)) part of Conn-Selmer are made in France and like half of the other brands are Chinese or Japanese.
I mean, regardless of what happens, Conn-Selmer has a practical monopoly, but even though Conn-Selmer does manufacture in the US, they probably still rely on importing metals, right?