Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson is leading a crackdown on businesses that misrepresent their products as “Made in the USA,” taking “unprecedentedly aggressive steps” to protect American consumers.
Speaking with Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle, Ferguson shared how these actions are in line with the Trump administration’s priorities.
“As you know, President Trump has ordered the federal government to focus on making sure that companies that say that they’re making products in America are actually making products in America, and this is super important because there’s a ton of evidence that the American people are willing to pay a premium to get products that are made in America, for good reason,” the chairman said.
According to Ferguson, who is also vice chairman of the president’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, American-made products are more trustworthy because they are made by “friends, families, and neighbors, your fellow citizens.”
“We want our economy to thrive, and not just the consumer part of the economy,” he continued. “We want the manufacturing part of the economy to thrive. And so, if you’re going to try to take advantage of consumer preference for things that are made in America, you have to be honest about it.”
FTC policies state that products with a “Made in the USA” label have to be virtually entirely made in the United States, but not every company plays by the rules.
“Over the course of last year, the FTC has taken unprecedentedly aggressive steps to enforce that requirement,” Ferguson told Boyle, recalling how the commission sent out warning letters to a “huge number” of companies in 2025, before executing several civil enforcement actions in federal court five months ago.
Millions of dollars have been recovered from some of the companies, with Ferguson noting that the money will be redistributed to consumers who were buying products they thought were made in the United States when they were not.
One of the most ironic examples uncovered by Trump’s FTC was announced in a recent press release from the commission, detailing how Americana Liberty LLC and Three Nations LLC allegedly sold American flags, U.S. military flags, and patriotic flag display products with labels that falsely claimed “Made in the USA,” “All-American Made,” “100% Made in the USA,” “100% American Made Tough,” and “Built by Americans for Americans.”
Instead of being wholly made in the U.S., the commission alleged that several products were “wholly imported from China,” while others were comprised of “significant or essential foreign components from China.”
Recounting the drama to Boyle, Ferguson said his investigation revealed that the businesses were “ripping off the label that said [the products] were from China, and selling them as ‘Made in the USA.’”
“So we brought an enforcement action. They agreed to a consent decree that forbids them doing it again, and they had to pay up,” Ferguson proudly added.
According to the FTC, the defendants stipulated to a proposed order that provides $167,743 towards “consumer redress” and prohibits “misleading or unsubstantiated country-of-origin claims.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
Read the full article here