Richard McCormack investigates the endurance of Donald Trump’s popularity.
The post below is an opinion piece written by award-winning journalist Richard McCormack, the founder and publisher of Manufacturing & Technology News. McCormack also served as the editor of the 2013 book on revitalizing manufacturing, ReMaking America. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichardAMc.
The American political and media establishment is genuinely perplexed by how Donald Trump continues to lead in the Republican polls. Columnists like George Will are baffled by the fact that Trump hasn't yet self destructed. Will continues to predict his "inevitable" collapse.
It hasn't happened, and it might not.
Trump is deeply offensive in so many ways. Among his targets: women, Hispanics, Muslims, Asians, and even John McCain.
The Club for Growth has gone after him, claiming that he is "playing us for chumps."
But there is, perhaps, a good reason for his sustained appeal: People in the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire who have listened to an entire Donald Trump stump speech have a lot more to like than dislike.
The basis of Trump's lead over traditional politicians rests on the deep disdain that millions of Americans have toward politicians that have sold out to multinational corporations and Wall Street. Trump articulates this anger to the "Silent Majority." He counts himself among these Americans: Tired of being lied to by back-slapping politicians who promise to pursue the interests of American workers, and then not do so.
"China has our jobs and Japan has our jobs and so many other places have our jobs," he says to sustained applause. "We don't have jobs!"
He has a receptive ear among his listeners when he chastises presidents for hiring former Wall Street financiers to negotiate trade deals that encourage the outsourcing of jobs to the benefit of corporate executives, stockholders, and foreign nations.
In his speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump spends more time discussing trade deals and the trade deficit than on any other topic. Well more than two-thirds of his stump speech is devoted to offshore outsourcing and what he would do to change American trade policies.
"China has our jobs and Japan has our jobs and so many other places have our jobs," he says to sustained applause. "We don't have jobs!"
With the United States back to nearly full employment, there should be more than enough wealth and income being generated to eliminate the federal budget deficit. It isn't happening because the United States is running colossal trade deficits. Large swaths of the economy have been hollowed out. America is sending its wealth overseas.
"I was in Los Angeles and I saw ships that were so big I've never seen anything like it, with cars pouring off from Japan," he says to packed halls. "They send cars, we send wheat!" The U.S. trade deficit is so big that it is "crazy," he barks. With his election, "it's all going to change!"
He says that politicians are "stupid… no, very stupid," for pursuing "unfair” trade deals. When he states that American politicians are corrupted by campaign contributions from those who benefit from trade imbalances, his crowds go wild.
"China has been taking our jobs, our money, our base, our manufacturing — everything," he bellows. "Think about this. What they have taken out of our country is like one of the greatest thefts in the history of the world. They have rebuilt China and we still owe them $1.4 trillion. How do you do that? It's like a magic act. How good are they as negotiators? They take everything and we owe them money?"
It's not just China. The United States owes Japan $1.4 trillion and runs huge trade deficits with Mexico, Germany, and South Korea. Something is wrong when those wealthy nations pay the United States nothing for their military security, says Trump to a receptive audience. Americans, he says, are being played for fools.
"This is too easy," he says to a rapt audience. "I don't need any of those killers I told you about. This is like taking candy from a baby."
Trump gets polite clapping when he says that he is going to hire the financial sector's best negotiators to represent American interests in trade deals. "I have Carl Icahn ready — a killer, killer," he says. "I have other people ready, people who are so nasty, so mean, so horrible, that nobody would want to have dinner with them. They are horrible human beings, but they are the greatest negotiators in the world. We are going to use our best."
And he's ready to take on the companies that outsource production. He doesn't mince words as to how he would confront a CEO upon a company's decision to locate a factory in Mexico while canceling construction of a plant in the U.S. To make them change course, Trump would apply a 35 percent tax on every car, truck, and part that enters the United States from Mexico. "This is too easy," he says to a rapt audience. "I don't need any of those killers I told you about. This is like taking candy from a baby."
And then comes a Trump zinger.
He says that if Jeb Bush was the president and decided to confront a company with an import tax, it would only take a few minutes before Bush "is going to be hit by their lobbyists who gave him millions."
Nothing like that would happen with Trump, says Trump. "I don't have anything from the corporate lobbyists. I don't want anything. I don't want their money because I don't want to be controlled. One of the things they like about me is that nobody is going to buy me."
This is the power behind the Trump bandwagon. It is a narrative that works well on the stump, but it’s not a narrative that usually receives a lot of airtime on cable news.
His diatribe against the current system of globalization is precisely what has given him staying power — and he has, in fact, put it into a sound bite: "Make America Great Again," which he bears on a cap covering his silly locks, to the admiration of his growing flocks.