Donald Trump, who has been using "bad trade deals" as one of his campaign issues, hijacked Bernie Sanders' message during his economic speech on Tuesday by attacking the NAFTA trade deal, which has been a bane for progressives ever since it passed.
"I'm going to tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better deal for our workers,” Trump said during remarks at an aluminum facility in Monessen, Pa., near Pittsburgh."And I don't mean just a little bit better, I mean a lot better," he said."If they do not agree to a renegotiation, then I will submit notice under Article 2205 of the NAFTA agreement that America intends to withdraw from the deal.”
Obviously the Chamber of Commerce would not support this vision on trade and came out strongly against Trump's new position.
But, back in 2013, the Chamber noted that Trump had a very different take on global trade which they supported.
One of the reasons it's frustrating trying to cover Donald Trump is because he changes his positions on policy almost daily and that has extended to his trade talk as well.
Kayleigh McEnany, a CNN political contributor and a Trump supporter was on CNN's New Day to discuss the Chamber of Commerce's strong reaction against Trump's speech.
However, she was cornered by Paul Begala, who read a blog post from Trump, where he sang the praises for the outsources of jobs and manufacturing.
Begala said, "Donald Trump has been a king of outsourcing. On his own blog at Trump University, hilariously, he wrote this: 'Outsourcing creates in the long run.' Trump defended outsourcing, he participated in outsourcing. Trump's shirts are made in Bangladesh, Trump ties are made in China, Trump suits are made in Mexico, Trump picture frames are made in India."
He continued, "He {Trump} is the King of outsourcing."
Co-host Alisyn Camerota followed his points up by asking Kayleigh McEnany, "Isn't that a problem for his message, that he himself has outsourced his manufacturing?"
Kayleigh responded by using as vacuous an argument as one could. She said, " I don't think so. He was being a smart businessman."
Oh, no, Kayleigh, he was being a money hungry creep. If he really felt so anti-NAFTA he would have made a stand then and there instead of reaping all the profits he could off the backs of American workers.
She continued, "Look, when you're a businessman, working in the economy, abiding by the same economic principles as your competitors. That means that you have to accept the market as it is."
That's also not true. Trump could have proudly bragged that he was going to try and find other ways to get his products made instead of swooping in on all that cheap labor overseas. Instead, he chose enrich himself off the backs of the American worker. He's a typical shark patrolling the international seas.
Kayleigh's argument could be used in this situation too. A man gets filthy rich as a drug dealer, but later admits that those drugs hurt a lot of people, but you know...I was in the drug business and I used what was at my disposal. Wouldn't you want me to be a good drug dealer?
