What did Donald Trump do today?

He lied about "saving" steel mills that are closing due to his trade policies.

During a rambling speech to the NRCC this evening, Trump claimed he personally "saved every steel mill" in the country during the trade war he launched during his first term.

TRUMP: They were dumping tremendous amounts of steel into the country during my term, I saved every steel mill, I—every—we only have steel mills because of what I did. I put a high tariff on them. Twenty-five and then fifty percent, and it stopped. 

In reality, Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum drove prices through the roof, and widened the gap between what American wholesalers had to pay and prices elsewhere in the world. In other words, it made things worse for anyone needing to buy anything containing steel—and it hurt American consumers more than it hurt anyone else. It also didn't "save" any steel mills: domestic production was virtually unchanged.

Trump is confused about the amounts involved. Tariffs on steel were 25%, not 50%, in 2018. In this term, he had threatened Canada specifically with 50% steel tariffs, but almost immediately backed off. 

In other steel industry news, the Cleveland-Cliffs company is laying off 1,200 workers because of plummeting demand in the face of the current trade war. It also scrapped plans to employ an additional 1,200 workers on renovation projects after Trump canceled a Biden administration grant to modernize their furnaces in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Why does this matter?

• Americans keeping their jobs is more important than indulging Donald Trump's fantasy that he is a hero.

• If Trump isn't knowingly lying, he's dangerously incompetent.