“I Didn’t Vote for a Neutron Bomb”: Pro-Trump freight CEO shocked that tariffs are destroying his own business

When Craig Fuller cast his vote for President Donald Trump a few months ago, he believed he was endorsing pro-business ideals — a familiar blend of moderate tariffs and focused economic strategies meant to revive American industry. That, he said, was the Trump of 2016: assertive, but calculated.

“I did not vote for a neutron bomb to wipe out supply chains and small businesses 100 days in,” Fuller, founder of the Chattanooga-based freight analytics firm FreightWaves, wrote on social media April 20.

Fuller, once a hopeful for Trump’s transportation secretary post, has grown increasingly concerned. This time, the trade penalties are neither slow nor strategic. They’re sweeping, and they’re hitting hard. He says domestic freight is already showing signs of a slowdown. Tariffs on Chinese goods have skyrocketed to 145%, and for Fuller, that’s essentially an embargo.

“We certainly are seeing a downshift in national freight demand,” he said in a phone interview. “We are seeing certain markets are struggling. What you would expect to see this time of the year is an increase in freight, and we’re not seeing that. We’re seeing a softening of the market.”

During Trump’s first term, tariffs hit items like washing machines, steel, and solar panels — gradual changes that gave companies time to adjust. But this time?

“What we’re seeing now is that it’s so drastic, so fast and furious,” Fuller said. “It’s too much too fast, and the economy cannot absorb it.”

According to him, the core issue isn’t necessarily the percentage. It’s the velocity. The tariffs were rolled out so suddenly that businesses didn’t have time to pivot production away from China or diversify their supply chains. “You need time to make this work, and that’s why this just seems like complete madness,” he said.

On April 2 — what Trump branded as “Liberation Day” — the administration launched tariffs affecting nearly every U.S. trading partner. As soon as they took effect, Fuller said the freight industry began to feel it. He predicts freight imports into Southern California, a major entry point for goods, will be slashed by half compared to last year.

“It works like a virus,” Fuller said. “It starts in Southern California, and it’s going to make its way to the rest of the country.”

Truck traffic out of Los Angeles is already down 23% from last year, he noted. Though not all of that is tied to tariffs, L.A. — home to the country’s largest port — is the bellwether. He warns that this freight freeze will soon ripple across national supply chains.

“This is then going to reverberate throughout the rest of the country,” he said. “What’s going to happen is those trucks and those trains that were coming from L.A. to Chicago and Dallas and Memphis and Kansas City are not going to have as much freight on board.”

Fuller’s forecast is grim. He expects May to bring a major slowdown for the trucking sector and anticipates layoffs across the supply chain by June.

“Enormous amounts of companies have canceled orders or they have paused what orders they have, waiting to see if there was a resolution,” he added.

His earlier optimism has all but evaporated. Before the election, he theorized that a second Trump term could trigger a short-term demand boost as companies hoarded inventory or moved manufacturing to Mexico. But he misjudged the intensity of Trump 2.0.

“What we’ve got is something that is not like the first Trump presidency,” Fuller said.

Meanwhile, the administration remains defiant. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would ease some auto tariffs via executive order. Yet Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear — the administration is focused on future-facing jobs and reindustrializing America.

Bessent noted Trump’s long-term goal: “jobs of the future, not of the past.”

At a Michigan rally, 61-year-old Carolyn Martz echoed that sentiment. Her husband is an auto technician and has witnessed firsthand how reliant the industry has become on foreign components.

“I’d like to see more stuff made in America, by Americans, for Americans,” she said. “If we have to eat more in the beginning with higher prices, that might just be part of it.”

Leavitt, in an exchange with an Associated Press journalist last month, justified the tariffs: “Ultimately, when we have fair and balanced trade, which the American people have not seen in decades … revenues will stay here, wages will go up and our country will be made wealthy again.”

On Air Force One, Trump said the hardship is necessary: “Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” according to the BBC. He believes his policy will make America “wealthy like never before.”

Howard Wall, director at the Center for Regional Economic Research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said businesses haven’t yet absorbed the full blow, as many pre-ordered inventory months in advance. But warning signs are flashing: declining truck volumes and a slowdown at ports.

“Anyone who says they know what’s going on is either wrong or lying to you,” Wall said.

The current volatility has frozen decisions across the board. Manufacturers are idling. Workers are being laid off. Companies are bracing for shortages of essential goods and production inputs. While some tech items like phones and chips were exempted, Wall says the overall execution lacks coherence.

“I’m an old man, and I have never seen anything like this,” he said. “There’s no rationale, and then it’s poorly executed in many ways.”

Even giants in logistics are beginning to blink. Knight-Swift Transportation, which acquired U.S. Xpress in 2023 for $800 million, pointed directly to the current tariff policy for a dip in momentum. CEO Adam Miller described “toxic tariffs and the fluid trade policy” as key reasons behind lower freight volumes and market anxiety.

“We are staying close with our customers as the situation unfolds, and they are generally expressing a few different approaches at this point,” Miller said. “Some are pressing forward with little change, meeting product as they see strength in their underlying sales. Some have already cut back or are in the process of cutting back on purchases, mostly centered around China, while still others are in a wait-and-see mode, where they’re drawing down inventory to support sales in the near term.”

Sources:

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/trump-tariffs-craig-fuller-warns-supply-chain-collapse
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-importers-brace-trump-tariffs-shockwave-hits-2025-04-21/
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-04-20/trump-tariffs-impact-los-angeles-port-trucking

Note to our readers: We understand some may question the validity of this report. The information above is compiled from verified international and independent news outlets, including the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, and FreightWaves. All claims have been fact-checked against multiple reliable sources to ensure accuracy and transparency.