At a Breitbart News policy forum on Wednesday, T1 Energy CEO Dan Barcelo proclaimed the Trump administration’s combination of tariffs and incentives is enabling American manufacturing to become more competitive by encouraging domestic investment and production.
Barcelo’s praise of Trump’s economic agenda took place at a Breitbart News policy event with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hosted by Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Finance and Economics Editor John Carney as part of an ongoing series.
Speaking to Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle, Barcelo echoed Lutnick’s championing of Trump’s strategic use of tariffs and other tools to end foreign trading partners taking advantage of the U.S. During the event, Lutnick asserted that the U.S. would end any small tariff “tussle” with other countries because “We are the greatest consumption economy in the world, [and] you can’t live without us because we buy your stuff.”
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“A lot of those points resonated from Secretary Lutnick in the sense that the administration has both incentives built in and disincentives from [a] tariffs perspective,” Barcelo said, adding that such disincentives mean “If you want to sell into the American market, you know it’s going to cost you more,” which helps American manufacturing “get on its feet and start.”
According to Barcelo, the long-term success of the American economy depends on that tariff-triggered capital formation and the construction of domestic production facilities, which in turn rely on investor confidence and returns. “We have to do capital formation. We have to build these fabs. We have to build these facilities that requires investor capital, that requires returns,” he told Boyle.
T1 Energy is an advanced American manufacturing company expanding its production of solar energy in Texas, helping enable the United States to challenge China’s dominance of the solar manufacturing industry, Barcelo explained. He emphasized that once operational, U.S.-based facilities in multiple manufacturing sectors benefit from highly competitive operating costs, particularly in Texas.
“The really important part is, once this is built, the operating cost of these facilities is extremely low and extremely competitive,” he noted. “Texas in particular has very low natural gas prices, very good electricity prices, very low water prices or specialty gasses.”
Barcelo concluded with a call for sustained trade barriers to support domestic competitiveness in the global market enabling American manufacturing to soar.
“So once these machines are going, America can compete very effectively, and hopefully one day be an exporter of these things,” he remarked. “So I do think it’s a mixture of incentives to promote that initial capital, and then it’s about not letting America just be wide open for everyone to dump their stuff into it. If someone wants to do that, there should be a higher wall to allow American manufacturing to compete.”
This will be Breitbart’s first policy event of 2026 after holding similar events in 2025 with Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Breitbart News partnered with CGCN and the ALFA Institute to put on the event.
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