Trump donor’s company moves Ohio plant work to China, angering union workers

Conn-Selmer planned to shut its Eastlake, Ohio, brass-instrument plant and move much of the work to China, a decision that put about 150 union jobs on the line and sharpened scrutiny of anti-offshoring politics in a major election year. The Eastlake facility, part of the largest U.S. band-instrument maker, was tentatively scheduled to close by June 30, 2026, with nearly all of its output shifting overseas.

The closure landed hard because of who was connected to the broader debate. John Paulson, the hedge fund billionaire and Donald Trump donor, said in a CNBC interview in September 2024, “We can't have American producers closing American factories and offshoring. We need to protect American jobs and protect American manufacturing.” The Eastlake plan stood in direct tension with that message, especially after a social post said Paulson had raised $50.5 million for Trump.

Workers at the plant, through UAW Local 2359 and union social media, denounced the move as a betrayal of a long-time legacy Ohio company. One UAW post said that after Conn-Selmer formally announced its decision to offshore 150 good union jobs to China, workers were rallying community support to save the Eastlake plant from closure. The union also described the facility as a legacy employer in Ohio and said workers were organizing to keep it open.

The dispute quickly moved beyond the factory floor. Democratic members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party later sought answers from the Trump administration about the planned shutdown and the shift of work to China, turning the Eastlake case into a political test of whether campaign rhetoric about domestic manufacturing would be matched by pressure on companies and donors.

Conn-Selmer’s move underscored a wider contradiction in the America-first pitch that has long attacked offshoring. In Eastlake, the costs were immediate and local: 150 workers faced termination, a brass plant with decades of history was headed for closure, and a community that had relied on the factory’s presence was left to fight for what remained of its industrial base.