Tariffs didn’t save my aluminum job, but real investment might
I used to spend my nights in the glow of molten metal. Inside the aluminum smelter, the air was thick with heat that wrapped around you like a heavy coat you couldn’t take off. Lightning cracked inside the pots as electricity tore oxygen from alumina, leaving behind the glowing, silver stream of raw liquid aluminum — the metal that built everything from airplanes to transmission lines.
We turned raw earth into something strong and lasting. And today I’m calling on our leaders to bring that work, and those good jobs, back to America by reinvesting in primary aluminum production, because I know what it looks like when those jobs disappear.
I saw it firsthand when the gates of Magnitude 7 Metals shut for good in 2024 in Marston, Mo. I walked out with a pink slip in my pocket and decades of experience suddenly put on hold. It wasn’t just me — hundreds of us lost our livelihoods, and a whole community lost its anchor.
The grocery store, the barber shop, the gas station on the corner — they didn’t just lose customers, they lost neighbors. Primary, or raw, aluminum smelting isn’t just a job. It’s a foundation for families and towns across America. When the smelter closed, that foundation cracked.
If President Trump really wants to stand with working people, he should prove it not with slogans, but with investment in primary aluminum production right here in America. He tried to solve the problem with Section 232 tariffs in 2018, to bring the industry back from the brink. And that helped in the reopening of the former Noranda aluminum smelter. But without tackling the real problem — the crushing cost of electricity to run a smelter — tariffs alone will not cut it.
That’s why Magnitude 7 Metals closed, despite those protections. Tariffs did not save my job, and they won’t save the future of this industry. What will is real investment in affordable, renewable-powered production that gives American aluminum a fighting chance to compete.
America needs aluminum. Everything about the future — whether it’s wind turbines towering in the Midwest, solar panels lined across desert plains, electric cars rolling off assembly lines — depends on aluminum. This is a metal of progress. And if we don’t smelt it here, we’ll just keep buying it from overseas, often from countries burning dirty coal while workers breathe toxic fumes.
Tariffs alone cannot solve that problem; America needs real investment in cleaner, safer domestic smelting so we can compete and lead.
We have another way forward: building primary aluminum in America, powered not by coal but by renewable energy. Imagine smelters run on hydropower, wind or solar charging through the grid. Cleaner production also makes U.S. aluminum more competitive on the world stage. China produces more than half of the world’s supply — but what if we partnered American strength with American innovation to be just as competitive, if not more?
My job provided wages that supported my family, health care that kept us safe and retirement plans that meant a future. Aluminum jobs are union-paying, middle-class-building jobs. If President Trump says he’ll put American workers first, then reopening and strengthening America’s aluminum smelters should be at the top of his agenda.
That’s why Century Aluminum’s plan to build a new smelter is so exciting. It’s not only a chance to create thousands of jobs on American soil, but a chance to do it right. This is what a future-proof industry looks like: secure jobs and cleaner skies.
When the Magnitude 7 smelter closed, it felt like the life I had built for my family was torn down. But aluminum workers like me aren’t finished — we remain skilled, tough, and proud of building the foundation for the planes, cars and power lines that keep America moving. Primary aluminum is about more than metal — it’s about dignity in work, strong communities, and powering a clean energy future with American sweat and skill. If Trump is serious about standing with workers, then he will stand with us. We know how to create the metal of the future — give us the power, and we’ll forge it.
Dalton Ezell is a former worker at Magnitude 7 Metals.