TAMARAC, Fla. —
Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling visited a Florida-based furniture store to learn firsthand how President Donald Trump’s agenda is helping American workers.
During a visit to City Furniture’s Tamarac location — where Sonderling himself has been a customer in the past — the newest member of Trump’s cabinet spoke with workers and management to hear about how Trump’s Golden Age has kept companies like City Furniture in business.
“Under President Trump, we’re committed to bringing back American jobs and American manufacturing,” Sonderling told the Washington Reporter in an interview on-site. “If you think about it, some of the best products, the best innovation, the best manufacturing in the world came from America. But unfortunately, particularly Democratic administrations, didn’t care about the American worker like President Trump does, and all those jobs are overseas.”
On the other hand, Sonderling continued, “President Trump is committed to bringing manufacturing back, and we’re seeing that constantly, with some of the historic investments we’re seeing both from domestic companies, foreign companies, wanting to bring their supply chains here.”
Roughly half of the Tamarac City Furniture’s inventory is made in America, an employee told the Reporter, and that tracks with what Sonderling learned during his visit.
“Let’s talk about the furniture industry,” he said. “It’s an industry where a lot of those jobs and a lot of that manufacturing went overseas, but people want American quality, so being able to tour and see the furniture here, seeing their showroom, seeing their warehouse with it is important.”
“What we’re seeing is that they’re committing to bring these manufacturing jobs back, and we’re seeing furniture being manufactured into the United States again, and that’s something their customers want,” he said of City Furniture. “The customers come in and they say they want American quality, and they want custom order furniture when they don’t have to wait six months to get something from overseas. This is an American company committed to not only hiring American workers but to bringing back American fashion and selling American-made products across this country.”
Sonderling and his colleagues in the Trump administration have prioritized reshoring American manufacturing, and he explained how signature Trump policies have helped make that possible.
The Working Families Tax Cuts are “a big reason for why we’re seeing not only job growth, but manufacturing and supply chains, construction coming back,” Sonderling said. “The Working Families Tax Cuts are already paying off. Just in Florida, we’re seeing an increase in over $7,000 of take home pay following the Working Families Tax Cuts.”
But, Sonderling, specific provisions like “no tax on overtime” allow for “employers to offer more overtime, and for these employees to take home more pay, and that’s something really exciting, not only helping new workers, but helping companies be able to depreciate assets, and now that money that they’re not paying in taxes is going right back into businesses, creating more jobs, and more important, more take-home pay for American workers.”
While at City Furniture, Sonderling hosted a roundtable with employees, tested out the furniture, and interviewed several of the employees himself. He told the Reporter that it is useful for him to conduct those interviews because “these inspirational stories that we hear are so important.”
“You hear people that are starting fresh out of high school, fresh out of college, in hourly jobs,” he added. “The next thing you know, their employer invests in them, and they can move all the way up into corporate jobs if they want, or just continue to hone their skills and get higher paying jobs within manufacturing. The flexibility that President Trump’s policies allows for, by having companies reinvest that money they were either paying in taxes or revenue that was overseas coming back to America, allows them to turn around and invest in employee development and workforce development and employee learning to allow employees to really accelerate into higher paying jobs they want to, and that flexibility wasn’t there before.”
During Sonderling’s short time as Acting Labor Secretary, he has already visited workplaces across America; the Reporter previously covered his first trip in the new role, which was to North Carolina, where Sonderling heard from small business owners and veterans.
While Sonderling’s first trip as Acting Secretary was to North Carolina, he couldn’t help but hide his Florida bona fides. While Sonderling was on the factory floor of City Furniture, the Reporter asked him whether he’d prefer to sleep on a Florida, California, or Alaska king bed.
“Although I love every state, having a Florida king would be quite, quite the experience, and I admit that I say that as a biased Floridian,” Sonderling said with a smile.
Below is a transcript of our interview with Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
Secretary Sonderling, you’ve seen smaller companies like this here at City Furniture, as well as bigger companies like Intel, Amgen, Ford, and General Motors talk about the importance of reshoring manufacturing here in America. What have you learned today from this visit about how companies are able to do that in President Trump’s second term?
Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling:
Under President Trump, we’re committed to bringing back American jobs and American manufacturing. If you think about it, some of the best products, the best innovation, the best manufacturing in the world came from America. But unfortunately, particularly Democratic administrations, didn’t care about the American worker like President Trump does, and all those jobs are overseas. President Trump is committed to bringing manufacturing back, and we’re seeing that constantly, with some of the historic investments we’re seeing both from domestic companies, foreign companies, wanting to bring their supply chains here. And let’s talk about the furniture industry; it’s an industry where a lot of those jobs and a lot of that manufacturing went overseas, but people want American quality, so being able to tour and see the furniture here, seeing their showroom, seeing their warehouse with it is important. What we’re seeing is that they’re committing to bring these manufacturing jobs back, and we’re seeing furniture being manufactured into the United States again, and that’s something their customers want. The customers come in and they say they want American quality, and they want custom order furniture when they don’t have to wait six months to get something from overseas. This is an American company committed to not only hiring American workers but to bringing back American fashion and selling American-made products across this country.
Washington Reporter:
Whether it’s here at City Furniture, earlier at the water pump factory, and elsewhere that you visited, how have you seen Trump policies like the Working Families Tax Cut allowing for everything that you just laid out to actually be implemented?
Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling:
That’s a big reason for why we’re seeing not only job growth, but manufacturing and supply chains, construction coming back. The Working Families Tax Cuts are already paying off. Just in Florida, we’re seeing an increase in over $7,000 of take home pay following the Working Families Tax Cuts, but no tax on overtime allows employers to offer more overtime, and for these employees to take home more pay, and that’s something really exciting, not only helping new workers, but helping companies be able to depreciate assets, and now that money that they’re not paying in taxes is going right back into businesses, creating more jobs, and more important, more take-home pay for American workers.
Washington Reporter:
During the 2024 campaign, President Trump talked about wanting to be the president of the American worker. Here you are with the Department of Labor. You just did interviews with two of the workers who are here. Why is it important for you to be hearing directly from the people who are making these sofas, mattresses, bed frames, and all of these other things here in America?
Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling:
These inspirational stories that we hear are so important. You hear people that are starting fresh out of high school, fresh out of college, in hourly jobs. The next thing you know, their employer invests in them, and they can move all the way up into corporate jobs if they want, or just continue to hone their skills and get higher paying jobs within manufacturing. The flexibility that President Trump’s policies allows for, by having companies reinvest that money they were either paying in taxes or revenue that was overseas coming back to America, allows them to turn around and invest in employee development and workforce development and employee learning to allow employees to really accelerate into higher paying jobs they want to, and that flexibility wasn’t there before.
Washington Reporter:
I just learned the existence of a Florida king size bed, and that’ll probably be your preference, but if you have to pick between Florida king, California king, Alaska king, which bed size are you taking?
Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling:
Although I love every state, having a Florida king would be quite, quite the experience, and I admit that I say that as a biased Floridian.
