There is a delicious double standard in Donald Trump’s view of
globalization, which may have a direct bearing on his emerging economic
policy.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, the one-time owner of the Miss Universe pageant – a very global enterprise – never missed an opportunity to rage against economic globalization.
That put him in sharp contrast to the Republican Party, which has long embraced this process. Even more potently at the ballot box, his stance also put him into sharp relief to the Democratic Party. Thanks to the Clintons’ relentless steering, their party embraced economic globalization at least as much.
The underlying logic, in the world of Trump, was straightforward:
Globalization is good when he benefits from it — as he did with his global Miss Universe brand, centered as it is on the visual merchandising of women’s bodies
Globalization is bad — when it is not about his brands and the goods he sells, but all other firms’ goods and services.
To date, Trump’s basic operating rule has been to say “to hell with the damn foreigners.” They are cheats and thieves who flout the rules and devalue their currencies in order to rob Americans in the global economic game.
Those damn foreigners, according to Trump also engage in the wholesale stealing of our intellectual property.
It would be complete news to him that the historical record indisputably shows that Americans did so themselves in a very systematic way during all of the 19th century in order to build up their economy.
But trade is only a part, if an essential one, of capitalism.
To be sure, as the owner of a private company, he could have bought more stuff for some of his ventures that was “made-in-America” — and thus more expensive, leaving him with smaller profits. He chose not to do that.
His operating rule is clear: Do as I say, not as I do.
At a minimum, economic nationalism will cost Trump’s angry blue-collar workers a lot of extra money each year. That is money they definitely don’t have.
It is easy, and perhaps alluring, for political elites to sell enraged voters on the notion of economic nationalism. But it is almost impossible to deliver on it.
Read more:P Welcome to Trumponomics: A Variant of "Economic Nationalism"
During the 2016 presidential campaign, the one-time owner of the Miss Universe pageant – a very global enterprise – never missed an opportunity to rage against economic globalization.
That put him in sharp contrast to the Republican Party, which has long embraced this process. Even more potently at the ballot box, his stance also put him into sharp relief to the Democratic Party. Thanks to the Clintons’ relentless steering, their party embraced economic globalization at least as much.
The underlying logic, in the world of Trump, was straightforward:
Globalization is good when he benefits from it — as he did with his global Miss Universe brand, centered as it is on the visual merchandising of women’s bodies
Globalization is bad — when it is not about his brands and the goods he sells, but all other firms’ goods and services.
To date, Trump’s basic operating rule has been to say “to hell with the damn foreigners.” They are cheats and thieves who flout the rules and devalue their currencies in order to rob Americans in the global economic game.
Those damn foreigners, according to Trump also engage in the wholesale stealing of our intellectual property.
It would be complete news to him that the historical record indisputably shows that Americans did so themselves in a very systematic way during all of the 19th century in order to build up their economy.
But trade is only a part, if an essential one, of capitalism.
To be sure, as the owner of a private company, he could have bought more stuff for some of his ventures that was “made-in-America” — and thus more expensive, leaving him with smaller profits. He chose not to do that.
His operating rule is clear: Do as I say, not as I do.
At a minimum, economic nationalism will cost Trump’s angry blue-collar workers a lot of extra money each year. That is money they definitely don’t have.
It is easy, and perhaps alluring, for political elites to sell enraged voters on the notion of economic nationalism. But it is almost impossible to deliver on it.
Read more:P Welcome to Trumponomics: A Variant of "Economic Nationalism"
