President Trump’s tariff plan is poised to bring manufacturing jobs back to American soil—but one of the country’s most well-known blue-collar champions is sounding the alarm about what happens next.

Mike Rowe, host of Dirty Jobs and longtime advocate for skilled labor, told comedian Theo Von this week that while he supports Trump’s efforts to rebuild domestic manufacturing, the country simply isn’t ready to fill the jobs that could be created.

“There’s gonna be a challenge that a lot of people aren’t talking about, which is labor,” Rowe said on Von’s This Past Weekend podcast. “If [Trump] gets his way and this all gets reinvigorated… you’re talking about 2 or 3 million new jobs, but there’s no workforce sitting there going, ‘this is what I want to do.’”

Rowe cited nearly half a million unfilled manufacturing jobs as of January—and warned that number could spike dramatically if companies begin reshoring production under Trump’s tariff regime. The former president implemented sweeping tariffs on April 2, declaring it “Liberation Day” and vowing to reverse decades of offshoring.

Trump’s goal is clear: bring jobs home, rebalance trade, and break China’s grip on critical industries. But Rowe says the skills shortage—and cultural stigma around blue-collar work—could derail the whole plan unless it’s addressed now.

“There’s a skills gap for sure, but there’s also a will gap,” Rowe said. “We told a whole generation of kids that they’re screwed if they don’t get a four-year degree.”

A growing body of data backs up Rowe’s concerns. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there were over 622,000 open manufacturing jobs at the start of 2024. McKinsey data also shows that participation rates for young workers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and a majority of teens say they’ve never even considered a trade.

Rowe blames the collapse of vocational education and the relentless push toward college.

“We took shop class out of high school,” he said. “We robbed kids of the opportunity to even see what that kind of work looks like.”

The result? Millions of able-bodied Americans not even looking for work in industries that desperately need help. Rowe cited a shocking figure: 6.8 million men of working age have left the labor force entirely.

“We’ve got jobs out there people don’t want and people who want jobs that don’t exist,” he told Von. “It’s a total disconnect.”

Trump’s tariffs are already shaking global supply chains and prompting manufacturers to rethink their reliance on China. But as Rowe pointed out, bringing back factories is only half the battle.

“Something beyond tariffs, beyond policy is going to have to happen to make 22-year-olds say, ‘Yeah man, I would consider doing that,’” he said.

It’s not the first time Rowe has warned about the cultural divide between “college for all” and the trades. He’s spent years trying to rebrand blue-collar careers as viable, respectable paths—and says America won’t solve its labor crisis until we stop treating trade school as a backup plan.

“If we really want to make America work again, we need to reconnect the dignity of work with the reality of opportunity,” Rowe added.

As Trump pushes forward with his plan to reindustrialize the country, voices like Rowe’s may become increasingly important—not just to spark job growth, but to ensure there’s a workforce ready to meet it.