During Donald Trump's campaign for the presidency, he made advancing American manufacturing a foundation of his economic platform and promised to reduce the sector's federal regulatory burden. In 2014, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the top industry association representing American manufacturers' interests, estimated the direct cost of federal regulations on U.S. manufacturers to be $138.4 billion annually.
Based on the first 18 months of the Trump administration, the U.S. manufacturing sector appears satisfied with the president's ongoing efforts at regulatory reform. In its quarterly Manufacturers' Outlook Surveys, NAM reports that for June 2018 the level of “Manufacturers' Optimism” averaged 95.1 percent, the highest in the survey's 20-year history, up from 64.3 percent in 2016, or a 47.9 percent increase over the last 18 months. Moreover, NAM's Manufacturing Outlook Index also rose to an all-time high of 63.8, the seventh straight quarter where the Outlook exceeded the survey's historical average.
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