Trump, after weeks of vague and elusive answers to questions regarding the TPP, has finally delivered what appears to be the final and merciful deathblow to the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement. After secret meetings with the Japanese prime minister and the presence of pro TPP transition team members over the last two weeks, Trump finally gave a definitive answer to the question “Will Trump walk away from the TPP?” In a message delivered via a short video, Trump laid out his vision for his first 100 days and stated that he would withdraw from the TPP on his first day in office should it be ratified. Citing the agreement as “a potential disaster for our country”, he noted that he would instead “negotiate fair bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back.”
Trump, like most politicians on both sides of the aisle, continue to undermine their own credibility by erroneously blaming most manufacturing job losses on globalization. Instead of informing the public to the fact that many of the jobs were lost due to automation in factories, they continue blame free trade and to promise a return to manufacturing days that will not be returning anytime soon.
In an article published by The Brookings Institution trying to explain the upset win by Trump over Clinton, it notes “‘racial resentments’ and xenophobia as the deepest sources of Trump’s appeal. And such explanations cannot be dismissed.” But it also goes on to say that “the decades-long decline of U.S. manufacturing employment and the highly automated nature of the sector’s recent revitalization should also be high on the list of explanations. The former is an unmistakable source of the working class rage that helped get Trump elected. The latter is the main reason Trump won’t be able to ‘make America great again’ by bringing back production jobs.” And this is where politicians will keep on losing the faith of the people. Unable to deliver on promises made on false assumptions, politicians on both sides will continue to face the same backlash which Clinton experienced on November 8th.
