WASHINGTON — Tariffs are not a theory in Denton — they are paychecks. As President Donald J. Trump prepares a Thursday factory visit to Peterbilt Motors, the White House is putting hard numbers behind the America First trade agenda: Paccar has added more than 1,000 jobs at the Denton plant and more than 2,000 jobs across the United States since heavy-truck tariffs hit.

A 25 percent tariff on medium- and heavy-duty trucks — and on non-compliant USMCA parts — took effect November 1, 2025, and remains in force. A White House official told Fox Business that Paccar responded the way Patriots always said American industry would when Washington finally stopped rewarding offshore production: it increased U.S. truck build rates and hired Americans.

Even United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain — no permanent guest at Republican fundraisers — gave Trump the credit. “We have pushed for action like this for decades, and we congratulate President Trump for delivering for heavy truck workers everywhere,” Fain said. “Let’s keep going and rewrite our broken trade rules.” When labor leaders who spent years fighting bad deals salute an America First tariff, the old free-trade lobby should listen.

Paccar’s Peterbilt and Kenworth brands move roughly 30 percent of the nation’s truck freight. The company is the only remaining American-owned high-volume heavy truck manufacturer and has been building trucks for 121 years. That industrial spine is exactly what Trump vowed to defend when Democrats treated factories as disposable.

The President’s Oval Office message Monday matches the tariff scoreboard: “They’re all coming back… Now we’re making it all. They’re all coming back at record numbers.” He reminded the country that nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the year before he took office — and that the Golden Age answer is production, not managed decline.

Race to the Mid-terms economics is simple. One side lectures workers about “global supply chains.” President Trump puts a 25 percent tariff on the table, watches Paccar hire thousands, and takes the win to the factory floor. That is America First trade — measured in jobs, not white papers.