Nearly 1,400 workers at a former Navistar truck factory in Springfield, Ohio, lost their jobs three days before President Donald Trump’s rally, even as a Canadian buyer pledges to grow the workforce.
On Wednesday, Kyle Bos and almost 1,400 coworkers were laid off from what had been the Navistar truck factory in Springfield, in southwestern Ohio. The cuts landed just ahead of Trump’s Saturday appearance at a nearby high school in the greater Dayton area, part of what he has described as a 32-day stretch of rallies before the November election.
Associated Press reporting put the job losses large enough to wipe out roughly a full year of employment gains across the greater Dayton region. Former owner International Motors chose to offload the facility. Canadian armored-vehicle maker Roshel is buying the plant.
Bos, 30, is a United Auto Workers member with two daughters and a third child due in January. He held up three tattooed fingers when asked how many times he had voted for Trump. He said he is done with the president and plans to spend the final weeks before the election canvassing for Democrats.
“Something has to change politically in this country. Seems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse,” Bos said.
“Something has to change politically in this country. Seems like it just kept getting worse and worse and worse.”
He also rejected Trump’s promise of $5,000 checks if Republicans win the House and Senate next month.
“It feels like a bribe, a slap in the face, and, like, that we’re all ignorant,” Bos said of the proposal.
“It feels like a bribe, a slap in the face, and, like, that we’re all ignorant.”
Roshel issued a statement saying it is “working with everyone involved not only to protect the current workforce, but to more than double it over the coming years through a phased process.” Laid-off workers said they expect possible rehiring in six to 12 months.
Marianne Donnelly drove a forklift at the plant. She is already buying marked-down beef, pork, and chicken for the freezer and has canceled subscriptions to The Columbus Dispatch, The Washington Post, and some streaming services.
“We weren’t getting a lot of overtime because of the economy. There just wasn’t any to be had, very little to be had,” Donnelly said.
“We weren’t getting a lot of overtime because of the economy. There just wasn’t any to be had, very little to be had.”
Factory towns know this pattern. Dayton’s industrial base has been under pressure for decades, a reality that still shapes how families budget groceries and cut extras when a plant changes hands.
The White House pointed to an $850 million investment by aircraft maker Electra, along with announcements in Ohio from Honda, Stellantis, and others, as evidence Trump’s policies were creating jobs. It also said his tax cuts and trade deals have helped Ohio.
On Thursday, speaking at a truck plant in Texas, Trump said: “All over the country, they’re building factories, plants, manufacturing’s coming back. The only thing we’re doing badly at is public relations.”
“All over the country, they’re building factories, plants, manufacturing’s coming back. The only thing we’re doing badly at is public relations.”
Trade and industrial policy remain flashpoints, including fights over foreign automakers locked out of the U.S. market and other import decisions that hit domestic producers.
Reporting around the Springfield layoffs noted that broad tariffs had not lifted demand enough to keep the prior operation intact, and that International Motors moved to sell the site. Full corporate memos beyond that choice were not detailed in the available account.
Federal data cited in the coverage show the Dayton area shed about half of its 90,000 factory jobs since 1990. The slide accelerated after the North American Free Trade Agreement and after China joined the World Trade Organization.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base now directly employs 38,000 people. That expansion has drawn aerospace firms including Joby Aviation, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Electra. Dayton itself counts about 137,000 residents, with renovated downtown lofts and the restored Dayton Arcade marking a partial civic comeback.
Jeff Hoagland, CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, said value from Wright-Patterson has been recognized across party lines for two decades.
“In economic development, it takes time, and you have got to give it a little bit of time to bake, and then once it does, then you’re going to have something special,” Hoagland said.
“In economic development, it takes time, and you have got to give it a little bit of time to bake, and then once it does, then you’re going to have something special.”
Worker squeeze stories are not unique to one Ohio plant; similar pressure has shown up in places like the Las Vegas tourism slump squeezing service workers even amid tax-relief talk.
Morgan Hughes, 35, once worked at Navistar. The job helped her buy a house at 21 and work alongside her father. When hours were first cut, she picked up DoorDash shifts and earned a real estate license. On the Monday before the layoffs, she and JoJo Burkhard knocked on doors in the Dayton suburb of Kettering, urging union members and retirees to back Democrats.
Hughes has a wrist tattoo of a cross and the phrase “Be Still And Know,” a reference to Psalm 46:10. Burkhard said inflation and the economy have made the pitch easier.
“It isn’t a hard pitch at all. And even if they don’t want to stay Democratic long-term, they’ll at least give the candidates a chance this election, which could be a turning point for us,” Burkhard said.
“It isn’t a hard pitch at all. And even if they don’t want to stay Democratic long-term, they’ll at least give the candidates a chance this election, which could be a turning point for us.”
After canvassing, at a Chinese restaurant, Burkhard opened a fortune cookie that read, “You’ll find your inner strength to overcome challenges.” Tears welled up. The layoffs meant no work for her, her boyfriend, and her mother.
Polling referenced in the same coverage found Americans increasingly blame Trump for the high cost of living, with just 17% approving of his handling of the issue. That figure sits beside the plant sale and the coming rally, not as a verdict on every factory still opening elsewhere.
Phil Plummer, a Republican state representative since 2019, Montgomery County Republican chairman, and now a candidate for the Ohio state Senate, entered politics after the 2008 financial crisis. He previously served as Montgomery County sheriff.
“My jail was 40% drug addicts, 50% mental health patients, 10% criminals. We got it upside down, that’s what drove me to the state house,” Plummer said. He stressed that Trump has held together the GOP’s coalition of businesses and working-class families.
“My jail was 40% drug addicts, 50% mental health patients, 10% criminals. We got it upside down, that’s what drove me to the state house.”
State Rep. Andrea White, a Republican, spent the past week in Columbus helping lead a push for a temporary suspension of Ohio’s 38.5-cents-per-gallon gas tax. She said Republican-led state government has also flattened the state income tax and reined in property tax hikes.
“The concept is, put it back in the hands of the people who pay the taxes, so they have more of their own money,” White said.
“The concept is, put it back in the hands of the people who pay the taxes, so they have more of their own money.”
Tariff fights continue on multiple fronts, from planned changes to the U.S. tariff on Irish whiskey to other import pressures that domestic industries watch closely.
Rose Lounsbury, a former schoolteacher running as a Democrat for state representative a second time, held a fundraiser at the Dayton Arcade with acoustic guitar and flute. She framed a broader middle-class complaint.
“There is a gap between what people want and what they feel is available. People don’t want to live a life of subsistence. They want to live the middle-class dream and they feel it’s not available like it once was,” Lounsbury said.
“There is a gap between what people want and what they feel is available. People don’t want to live a life of subsistence. They want to live the middle-class dream and they feel it’s not available like it once was.”
In the U.S. Senate race, Republican Sen. Jon Husted faces former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is attempting a comeback two years after losing his seat and is working to channel voter discontent.
Enforcement and industry oversight under Trump have also reached trucking-adjacent sectors, including a sweep that shuttered more than 270 truck driving schools in a fraud investigation, another reminder that transportation jobs sit under heavy regulatory and economic stress.
Separate trade friction with ranchers over foreign beef import decisions shows how import policy can split even producers who want a stronger domestic market.
Trump’s major legislative package, referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill, temporarily stripped taxes from tips and overtime, measures aimed at take-home pay for working households even as single-plant closures still land hard.
Springfield’s nearly 1,400 layoffs are a real blow to paychecks, overtime, and family budgets in southwestern Ohio. They do not erase Wright-Patterson’s 38,000 jobs, the aerospace money moving in, or Roshel’s public pledge to protect the workforce and more than double it. Manufacturing recovers when plants stay open, owners invest, and policy stops rewarding the offshoring decades that hollowed out places like Dayton in the first place.