There are few industries which are as tied to railroading as the steel industry. In April, Trump came to Pittsburgh where he promised to being back the steel industry to the Pittsburgh region. This raises a number of questions:

1) What is Trump's expertise in industrial policy and where can I go to learn more about his knowledge in this field?

2) Does Trump view the federal planning for and creation of Conrail a model for industrial policy in his administration?

3) There have been other steel-making areas in the United States - Birmingham, AL; Bethlehem, PA; Cleveland, OH; Northwestern Indiana; Pueblo, CO and Fontana, CA. If Trump's policies were to revitalize steel-making in the US, why would it come to Pittsburgh?

4) Trump attributes the decline of steel-making to NAFTA. However, the sharp decline in Pittsburgh steel-making occurred in the early- to mid-1980s, where before NAFTA was signed in 1994. While steel imports were one of the causes of Pittsburgh's industrial decline, there were many other factors like poor labor-management relations, the age of Pittsburgh's steel mills (US Steel and others were investing in more modern facilities elsewhere while making the decision not to reinvest in Pittsburgh area facilities) and shifting of population and economic activity westward making production elsewhere in the nation more economical. How would a Trump Administration industrial policy address these issues?

Note to those who would cite environmental regulations - while much of the Pittsburgh area steel industry vanished in the 1980s, one of the most polluting processes, coke-making remained.

5) In 1998, the Sun Company proposed a new coke plant after LTV closed its mill in Pittsburgh. Although the Democratic mayor at the time and unions supported the Sun Company, there was substantial community opposition to this proposal from those concerned about pollution from the plant. Additionally, Sun would not make promises to the nearby neighborhood, Hazelwood, that local residents would be hired to work in the new facility. These issues, combined with the need for public subsidies resulted in the proposal being cancelled. How would a Trump Administration address community concerns when new industrial facilities are planned and would Trump favor federal subsidies to build new mills?

6) While most of the job loss in the steel industry has been due to plant closures, with technological innovations, steel mills have become much more efficient. Labor productivity has seen a five-fold increase since the early 1980s, going from an average of 10.1 man-hours per finished ton to an average of 1.9 man-hours per finished ton of steel in 2015. Can communities anticipate significant numbers of new jobs if Trump's policies are successful in bringing back steel making to communities which lost it?

Quite a few pro-Trump folks posted on this thread. I assume that they have extensive knowledge of Trump's proposals and will be able to provide intelligent responses to these questions.