Cue the sad trombone: Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson — a major Trump donor and advocate of tariffs — is shuttering his Ohio brass instrument plant and offshoring work to China, according to a new report.
Paulson’s company Conn Selmer, the nation’s top maker of orchestral and brass instruments, notified employees it will shift most of its East Lake plant operations to Asia by July, triggering about 150 layoffs, The Guardian reported.
Employees were informed of the decision last month, when they expected to negotiate a new union contract, according to United Auto Workers Local 2359, which represents the workers.
The employees said the company unveiled a new plant in China in 2025, and that work has slowly shifted to that location. However, workers in Ohio had previously been told their jobs were not in jeopardy.
Workers there expressed deep dissatisfaction with the decision, with one saying, “It really pisses me off,” while another said they felt “betrayed.”
A representative for Conn Selmer confirmed that, should a “tentative decision” be finalized, the firm will move some production out of the country, according to the outlet.
A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
Paulson — who is worth an estimated $4 billion, according to Forbes — has been a major backer of the Republican president for years.
During Trump’s first presidential campaign, Paulson served as an economic advisor, and he raised $50 million for the president at a 2024 fundraiser in Florida. He was also shortlisted to serve as treasury secretary, a position that was ultimately given to another hedge fund investor: Scott Bessent.
Paulson has also expressed support for Trump’s tariff agenda. Shortly before the 2024 election, he told Semafor that a 10 to 20 percent tariff to boost American manufacturing would be reasonable.
“It would result in higher import prices,” he said. “But on the other hand, it supports domestic manufacturing, so you get more jobs, more investment in the US, more taxes.”
Two months earlier, Paulson told CNBC that Trump’s tariff plans were “well-founded.”
He’s also publicly opposed moving jobs overseas. “We can’t have American producers closing American factories and offshoring,” he told the outlet. “We need to protect American jobs and protect American manufacturing,”
Robert Hines, president of UAW Local 2359 and a worker at the Conn-Selmer plant in Ohio, said Paulson’s latest decision smacks of hypocrisy.
“To go publicly on CNBC to support the Trump administration’s positive views on tariffs and all that stuff, and then you turn around and [say you] want to go send the work right over to China,” Hines told The Guardian. “It’s a slap in our face.”
Overall, U.S. manufacturing jobs have declined since last spring, when he first implemented his aggressive and wide-ranging tariffs — which he promised would lead to a renaissance of blue-collar jobs, according to Reuters.
The industry shed 8,000 jobs in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. And since April employment in the sector has fallen by more than 70,000 to about 12.69 million as of December, marking the worst reading since March 2022.
