Threatens to tear up NAFTA, pull out of the TPP, slam 35% tariffs on Mexico and China and file suit against China as a currency manipulator.
I must say that I strongly support everyone one of those things! Clinton has been silent in response, as she does not talk much about trade these days, although her campaign manager said the other day that she remains opposed to the TPP.
Nevertheless, the Hillary appointees on the Democratic Party Platform Committee for the coming convention have watered down just about everything good in the platform.
Particularly galling was the Clinton appointees’ refusal to take a stand on the TPP. The original platform said that the party opposed the TPP, but the Clintonites killed that and changed it to say that the Democratic Party holds a diversity of views on the subject. They did this, they said, so as not to undermine Obama’s push to pass the trade deal, which he will probably do in the lame duck session when no one has to worry about getting re-elected. So, let’s see, Clinton opposes the TPP, except her delegates said we need to support Obama’s efforts to pass the TPP! What?!
Clinton just doesn’t get it. Progressives are outraged by this language, saying that they are suspicious that Hillary is lying about the TPP like she does about so many things. They say she opposes it to win the election and then will pass it once she gets in. The Left wing of the party trusts Hillary not one bit, and I trust the woman about as far as I could throw her, which is not very far.
I am absolutely opposed to Trump and feel he must be defeated at all costs, but I hope he pounds away at Clinton on this trade issue relentlessly. Maybe he will knock some sense into her, who knows?
A major problem though is that in pushing this anti-trade agenda, Trump is alienating the entire corporate sector of the party, and the GOP is a corporate party if nothing else. Also free trade has been a party mainstay for decades now. How can Trump oppose the very corporations that are the backbone of the party? How can he oppose what is ideologically pounded into stone in the party?
This is what people mean when they say Trump is tearing the party apart, which is something delightful to see.
