Trump Isn't Creating Jobs, But He Is Creating Job Creation Announcements

After finding out he's being duped by businesses, the president-elect lashed out at NBC for informing him.

Paul Hennessy/Polaris/Newscom

Hoping to avoid becoming the next target of Donald Trump's tweetstorms, some businesses are going out of the way to make grand announcements about investments they were already making before Trump was elected. In other cases, some companies are "recycling" old announcements about job creation in an apparent effort to appease the president-elect.

The emperor has no clothes, of course, and any president (or governor) has limited control over the multitude of business decisions that drive the modern American economy, but it would appear that Trump's bullying tactics have convinced businesses to line up and assure him that he does.

"Pretty much everybody is dreading being the subject of a tweet," Kristin Dziczek, a spokeswoman for the Center for Automotive Research told the Guardian earlier this month. "Getting hauled out into the court of public opinion with virtually no warning is not something anybody wants to get engaged with."

Trying to stay out of Trump's doghouse, companies including G.M., Wal-Mart, Hyundai, Amazon, Fiat Chrysler, and Sprint have flooded the airwaves in recent weeks with announcements about new jobs, facilities, or investments on American soil. In a report published Tuesday, NBC News found that not all of those announcements are completely genuine, or at the very least aren't driven by the fact that Trump won the election in November.

For example, G.M. had been planning a $1 billion investment (and the 1,500 jobs that will come with it) in U.S. manufacturing operations since 2014. Wal-Mart's announcement that it will add 10,000 jobs is part of pre-scheduled annual hiring increases and comes at the same time that the retailer is closing more than 200 under-performing stores and cutting thousand of jobs, NBC reported.

Trump's response to learning that some companies might be duping him with phony job creation announcements was pretty much exactly what you would expect. After NBC ran its story on Tuesday, Trump tweeted angrily about the suggestion that he wasn't personally responsible for the job announcements.

Totally biased @NBCNews went out of its way to say that the big announcement from Ford, G.M., Lockheed & others that jobs are coming back…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2017

to the U.S., but had nothing to do with TRUMP, is more FAKE NEWS. Ask top CEO's of those companies for real facts. Came back because of me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2017

I've written before that it's dangerous for a president to meddle in the economy on such a personal level, and that it's arguably more dangerous for him to believe he's doing so effectively. That's exactly what's happening here, and each phony proclamation about the president "creating jobs" when those jobs were going to be created anyway only adds to the strongman mentality that Trump has crafted for himself—and, quite successfully, projected outward to the country as a whole.

It''s probably going to continue, though, because when the president-elect is doling out favor and criticism based on individual circumstances for specific businesses, all businesses have a pretty strong incentive to tell him exactly what he wants to hear.

After Friday, Trump's ability to cajole companies will go beyond tweeting and hauling them before the court of public opinion. He's promised to slap "a big border tax" on businesses that he believes are unfairly moving jobs out of the country. This is recipe for crony capitalism, yes, but also for punishing American consumers who will have to bear the brunt of higher prices created by those border taxes.

What's the point of Trump's behavior? Maybe, as Matt Welch suggested last week, it's mostly to be entertaining. He knows the media can't help themselves when it comes to his more outlandish claims. It's also, Welch posits, about showing that he takes seriously the job displacement issues of his working class, Rust Belt voting blocks.

Either way, the important point is that Trump's behavior toward G.M., Ford, and others is all about politics—it's not a surprise, then, that those companies would play politics in return, telling the would-be economic emperor that his clothes are the most beautiful things they've ever seen.

Comments

[SimonD]

It's pretty simple. When government has so much power (and willingness) to fuck you over, you're going to bend over backwards in an attempt to ingratiate yourself with it.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Don't be the first one to stop applauding.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

+1 hand clapping

[R C Dean]

+ 1 euphemism.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

+1 .... nothing. I got nothing.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

+2 progressive jazz hands

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Not jizz hands?

[FD]

"...NBC News found that not all of those announcements are completely genuine.."

Was this reported by Brian Williams too?

[Rhywun]

Yeah, since when are we to believe NBC has any more credibility than Trump here.

[Mad Squirrels]

The media really need to do an industry-wide turnaround and bring in objective reporting and ethical behavior. When news went from one person reading actual facts from a sheaf of papers to a crowd smiling ninnies gabbing about, not facts, but trying to persuade their viewers to a particular point of view, we lost the value of televised media. Only print media seems worth reading anymore, and that has its own problems with objectivity, although not nearly as bad as that on camera. When media demonstrate truthfulness and objectivity, then they'll be believable and fulfill their role of informing us rather than manipulating us.

[plusafdotcom]

Yeah, print media... right. Unbiased...

That's why I ended my print subscription to the Raleigh, NC, News & Observer, and almost never go to the online edition.

Lefty-Cultists saturate their articles and comments posts.

[woodNfish]

You're supposed to believe it when some unReason dipshit staff hack wants to use it to prove their non-point.

[Just Say'n]

Dan Rather. He's back and somehow we're suppose to ignore the whole lying, standing by the lie, and then making a movie about the lie, but ignoring the part about how it was all a lie.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....52746e5caf

So brave

[Paulpemb]

It was fake but accurate! Bush destroyed all the evidence that he deserted from the Texas Air National Guard, so they had to forge documents proving what they couldn't prove, but were absolutely sure that he did, because Bush.

[Mad Squirrels]

What do you want? He was just a drunken party boy.

[Playa Manhattan.]

"I've written before that it's dangerous for a president to meddle in the economy on such a personal level"

Honestly, I think it's better to have one incompetent guy doing it than having entire divisions of the government meddling and dedicating themselves to destroying entire industries.

[Citizen X]

Wake me up when we no longer have both an incompetent wannabe strongman AND entire divisions of the bureaucracy meddling in the economy.

[Playa Manhattan.]

You're gonna get a lot of beauty rest in the next 4 years. Lord knows you need it.

[John Titor]

There may be a Rip Van Winkle element to this.

*wakes Citizen X up a hundred years in the future*

"Good news buddy! The U.S. government collapsed and the free market can reign again! ...the bad news is that it's a hellish Mad Max wasteland."

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

"Welcome to the apocalypse, I hope you like leather!"

[Rhywun]

Don't worry, Lord Humungous will take care of us. For awhile, anyway.

[John Titor]

Oh sure, you'd say that, you get a motorcycle and an Australian boy-toy. I get to be the guy stuck on the poles on the front of the cars.

[Lord Humungus]

I take care of my own.

[Fk Censorship]

United States of Somalia?

[Mad Squirrels]

I'd say let's get the Libertarians into office, but they're such a mess of dorm room navel gazers that they can't get their act together and they'd probably morph into some version of what the Republicans and Democrats have become.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

At least the press calls Trump on his bullshit. You have to admit that's refreshing, right?

[Rhywun]

Sure, if they hadn't pissed away the last eight years covering for The One.

[Paulpemb]

Yep, you don't get to be a lap dog for 8 years and then one day decide you're a watch dog again.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

A clock with a hundred hands will be right more often than a clock with no hands.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Is this one of those euphemisms i keep hearing about? /trying to keep up

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Bukkake jackoff, ewww.

vs abstinence jackoff, wtf?

[Homple]

Can't blame the guy for taking credit for some sunshine because he'll damn sure get blamed for the rain.

[PapayaSF]

+1

[Ted S.]

Can't blame the guy for taking credit for some sunshine

Len blames him.

[Password: pode$ta]

Uh...

Wal-Mart's announcement that it will add 10,000 jobs is part of pre-scheduled annual hiring increases and comes at the same time that the retailer is closing more than 200 under-performing stores and cutting thousand of jobs, NBC reported.

From the NBC article:

Wal-Mart's job creation plans are in line with its normal annual increase, and come after it has closed 269 under-performing stores and cut thousands of jobs.

-Not really what NBC said.
-Pretty much just speculation anyway.

Still, the tweeting thing could become problematic and it's a little weird for the President to use the bully pulpit to badger companies. It's not a new phenomenon - it's just that Twitter is a really efficient tool for it.

[Homple]

The tweeting issue is already "problematic" and it will soon escalate to "troubling".

[Citizen X]

It looks as though it may surpass both "troubling" and "not okay" and reach full-on "i literally can't even" levels.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

When pundits and sjws on the Twitter stop being able to even, then it all goes to hell

[Crusty Juggler]

could become problematic

Could? He has already affected stock prices and pissed off foreign countries with Tweets. Is it part of a strategy? If it isn't...sheesh.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Per your previous NYT link, it's fascinating to watch the press become less impressed with the concept of a "Social Networking President" who "gets it" instead of more impressed.

[Rhywun]

Maybe Twitter will do the nation a favor and close down. And take Facebook with it.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I believe Facebook makes money* but Twitter is just a very popular money loser.

*I may not be correct about that-- as a lifelong tech careerist, I'm still flummoxed by the number of tech companies that don't make a dollar but their leadership is given the Howard Kurtz treatment in the media.

[Crusty Juggler]

A collection of attention-starved, insecure, hip dorks were upstaged by an even more attention-starved, insecure, old man, so it's inevitable that they will do their best to make Twitter seem less important.

[Crusty Juggler]

It is probably like learning your father has better taste in music than you.

[Citizen X]

Or that he gets laid more on Tinder.

[Crusty Juggler]

Better example. Also, ew.

[Chipwooder]

I have much better taste in music than my children.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Same here. And i get laid more. (It helps that my son is six months old)

[Password: pode$ta]

Fine, fine. Is problematic. Jeez.

[FD]

"...it's dangerous for a president to meddle in the economy on such a personal level, and that it's arguably more dangerous for him to believe he's doing so effectively."

Err, don't tell me -- you're joking right? Where the hell has this staff been throughout their lives?

[R C Dean]

In grade school when Obama took office?

[Eric Boehm]

For the record, I was in college (a senior, in fact) when Obama took office 🙂

[Tman]

Just so you know Eric, .it's dangerous for aour current president to has meddled in the economy on such a personal level, that it's arguably more dangerous for him to believe he's doing so effectively. that it's restrained GDP growth for 8 consecutive years.

What Trump has proposed isn't even half of what Obama has already done.

[paranoid android]

Wal-Mart's announcement that it will add 10,000 jobs is part of pre-scheduled annual hiring increases and comes at the same time that the retailer is closing more than 200 under-performing stores and cutting thousand of jobs, NBC reported.

I wonder if this will be cited as an example of callous corporate greed by the same people who stage protests to prevent Wal-Mart from opening stores in under-served neighborhoods in the first place.

[Citizen X]

Sort of, but it's really hard for them to keep the gloat from showing.

[Zunalter]

Good thing Wal-Mart changed their mind from outsourcing all of their cashier and replenishment engineering positions to mexico and china. #GoTrump2017!

[Glide]

Hey, don't take away their win-win scenario. It's nice that they can blame the same people for exploiting the poor too much and not exploiting the poor enough.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

I almost hope he does manage to push through a 35% tariff, just because it will have such an immediate negative impact on consumers that the backlash will roll it back and discourage any repeat of it for a decade or two. It might also blunt some of the Bernie supporters who wanted something even worse.

[Citizen X]

Most of the Bernie supporters i know are pretty blunted already, if you get my drift.

[WhatAboutBob]

only adds to the strongman mentality that Trump has crafted for himself

Looks like Eric is doing some projecting. It's the media and leftists that have been calling Trump a strongman.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

Are you wearing deep red colored glasses or something? Trump's whole gig is about what he's gonna do, personally. Just look at that tweet -- "Came back because of me!" If that's not strong leader impersonation, I don't know what is.

[paranoid android]

To say nothing of his implying that he personally has the power to punitively tax companies that displease him.

[I am the 0.000000013%]

I think he's going to inherit the pen and the phone too

[MikeP2]

as if every president in history has not spoken in essentially the same way.

Or have you forgotten that Obama was going to lower the seas and usher in a new post-racial society?

[R C Dean]

One wonders how often President Pen-and-Phone, he of the personality cult, was referred to as a "strongman".

[Crusty Juggler]

From his press conference:

. So if you want to move to another country and if you want to fire all of our great American workers that got you there in the first place, you can move from Michigan to Tennessee and to North Carolina and South Carolina. You can move from South Carolina back to Michigan.

You can do anywhere ? you've got a lot of states at play; a lot of competition. So it's not like, oh, gee, I'm taking the competition away. You've got a lot of places you can move. And I don't care, as along as it's within the United States, the borders of the United States.

[wareagle]

by comparison, see Obama and Boeing when the company talked about moving some ops from Washington state to South Carolina.

[paranoid android]

Great, after eight years of "But BUUUUUUUUUSH" we get to now look forward to the era of "But OBAMAAAAAAAAA"

[kbolino]

There hasn't yet been invented a problem that can't be solved by proper application of "but [despised politician]"!

[wareagle]

so you totally missed the point. Great.

[John Titor]

I think it's at least partially fair to point out that the people declaring Trump to have a strongman mentality have oddly failed to suggest this of the soon-to-be ex-President, instead we tended to get a more general criticism (least transparent administration, failed to live up to stated policies, is doing the opposite of what the progressives say he's doing, etc.) without the clear "he's trying to be dictator guys" hints. Handwaving Trump's idiocy is not acceptable, but there's certainly a clear habit where some writers have a willingness to refer to Trump in very cut-and-dry language while being softer on President Not-My-Fault.

[Deven]

It is because half the staff is stuck in the 90s and don't understand that progressives are far more right wing than conservatives are, the other half of the staff has been brainwashed into believing the same thing.

Basically it goes like this:

Liberalism = good = progressive
QED

[Mad Squirrels]

I wish I could remember where I read it and who wrote it, but a very apt pundit predicted when Obama was elected that his would be a failed presidency and that he would blame prior administrations and everyone but himself for the failures. Obamie has a cozy place beside Jimmy Carter.

[Crusty Juggler]

Trump isn't even bothering with the labor review board bullshit.

[wareagle]

are we actually going to debate - here, of all places - whether a company should be free to move from one state to another? The feds actually did get involved with Boeing. The Tweeter-elect-in-chief has not actually done anything. Not yet.

[Crusty Juggler]

The Tweeter-elect-in-chief has not actually done anything. Not yet.

I don't think women should be worried about getting raped until after they get raped.

The quote from the transcript is a recent example of his strongman mentality.

[wareagle]

his quote suggests that companies try to make things work here. Some will decide that is not possible. Maybe the result will be a cut in the corporate tax rate and a reduction in the regulatory state. Both of those strike me as good things.

[Crusty Juggler]

Telling companies that if they do not want a massive border tax they must do business inside the United States is not an example of Trump's strongarm mentality?

[wareagle]

then should have been in your quote, in bold. To answer your question, yes, it's not something to cheer but what you posted did not talk about taxes and sounded nothing like strongman rhetoric.

[Crusty Juggler]

Ok.

But you're going to sell through a very strong border ? not going to happen. You're going to pay a very large border tax. So if you want to move to another country and if you want to fire all of our great American workers that got you there in the first place, you can move from Michigan to Tennessee and to North Carolina and South Carolina. You can move from South Carolina back to Michigan.

You can do anywhere ? you've got a lot of states at play; a lot of competition. So it's not like, oh, gee, I'm taking the competition away. You've got a lot of places you can move. And I don't care, as along as it's within the United States, the borders of the United States.

There will be a major border tax on these companies that are leaving and getting away with murder. And if our politicians had what it takes, they would have done this years ago.

Phew.

[SugarFree]

Trump is just trolling, Crusty. Lighten up, Francis.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Telling companies that if they do not want a massive border tax they must do business inside the United States is not an example of Trump's strongarm mentality?

Wait a second... is Trump the first to say suggest this, or is he the first to get criticized by the press for saying it? Serious question.

I seem to remember a lot of noise on the left over the last eight years demanding we 'punish' companies that skirt their responsibilities to hardworking Americans and move their jobs overseas. I'm not saying, "Because someone else suggested it, Trump gets a pass", I'm just a little surprised at the surprise.

In fact, I recall a long-running joke here that Trump wanted to build a wall to keep people out, Democrats wanted to build a wall to keep people in.

It seems to me that Trump has reversed that position. He's spoken very little lately about keeping people out, but has adopted the message of keeping people in.

[wareagle]

so how come none of these "pre-scheduled" announcements came earlier? It is hard to conclude that so many such items coming AFTER Trump's election is purely coincidence. Not causal, to be sure, but maybe there is a correlation between a business guy in the big chair and the behavior of business people.

[R C Dean]

I would imagine that a massive corporation like Walmart does sensitivity analyses on its projections, and adjusts its plans periodically. So, I think its entirely possible that Walmart didn't have A "pre-planned" expansion and hiring schedule, but more than one subject to change based on business conditions.

Trump and Hillary were both business scenarios I would expect my staff to plan for if I was God-Emperor of Walmart. So, Trump is probably not completely irrelevant to this announcement.

[mortiscrum]

I suspect Trump is involved to the degree that companies are making the moves they were already planning on making, but they're ensuring Trump and everyone else knows about. Sans Trump, they would've done the exact same thing but without the dedicated media pitch.

[wareagle]

so why didn't they do the same thing before Trump? We've spent the past several years talking about the dropping labor participation rate, the fallacy of the published jobless figure, the impact of regulation, the nation's ridiculous corporate tax rate, and O-care. Your claim that this would have happened had Hillary won is going to require a citation. That he's a suit as opposed to a professional pol seems a factor; the debate is on how much of one.

[mortiscrum]

GM has been planning their thing since 2014. Wal-Mart's hires are part of a pre-scheduled plan. This makes me strongly confident that regardless of the outcome of the election, these moves would have been made.

With Trump in office though, these companies are suddenly in a position of needing to make sure their operations are well-known, for fear of Trump deciding they are insufficiently "pro-America" and trashing them on twitter. It is in their business interest to make these announcements.

As it stands, Trump is NOT responsible for GM hiring 1,500 new people. He IS responsible for that being national news.

[PapayaSF]

in an apparent effort to appease the president-elect

Or: "in an apparent effort to ride Trump's coattails and make themselves look good."

[BigW]

I know everyone is shocked again to have a President that actually roots for his own country...

[kbolino]

Trump Isn't Creating Jobs

As we learned before, the metric is not jobs created but jobs created or saved. Get with the times, man!

[FD]

Somehow Twitter is the new napalm; the outrage from the children of all ages is sadly laughable. The red-haired flame thrower uses the tools at his disposal, as any effective pol does. Obama and his sycophants were masters of this, and do I blame them? Hell, no. All's fair in the filthy, immoral game of politics. Obama uttered his empty platitudes, with his professorial, staid mechanics, and the leftist faux-intellectuals gazed starry-eyed, assuming there was intelligence in his posture and nobility in his elusive grail of justice. In fact, some of them were orgasmic, right up the leg and all. "Ahh, this is a president," they swooned "This is leadership, and I will follow."
The rent-seeking, circus clown Trump cashed in with a plainer speaking crowd. Watching somebody tell the NPR crowd to suck eggs, the working man had his turn to gaze upward and think, "Fuckin' A."
While the idiot-savants at CNN, NYT, you name it, purse their lips and pout over a crude bully, they are incapable of recognizing the working man is exceedingly more grounded in reality. Ya see, after four years, if Trump is ruling (like the bastards all 'rule') and the place is even further down the rat hole, the regular Joes will say, '"Fuck him. Turned out to be another asshole." Quite a contrast to the psychotic and deranged left, who after four years of their lying, warmongering hero, still gaze starry-eyed, "How presidential. This is leadership?

[Chipwooder]

Look, we all knew that the bill for the progtears was coming due....

[LoneWaco]

>>>>The emperor has no clothes, of course

Is that worse than an empty suit that has no clothes?

[Ken Shultz]

Someone also might point out that Trump hasn't even been inaugurated yet.

Let's wait until he's crowned emperor and has a chance to do some things before we denounce him as a total failure.

Everybody keeps talking about what a great quarterback Aaron Rodgers is, but he hasn't thrown a touchdown since last week!

Some of that may be because he isn't the quarterback everyone hoped he'd be, but some of that may be because he hasn't been in a game since last week.

Trump isn't really in the game yet. I'm sure he'll fail spectacularly in certain ways, but before people start celebrating his failures, maybe we should wait until he's been in a game and played a few downs.

[Horatio]

CTRL-F "failure" turned up nothing in the article. Perhaps this post was meant for the column celebrating Trump's failures?

[ant1sthenes]

But... if companies are touting their hiring, would that possibly boost consumer confidence, leading to a burst of spending, which might in turn boost investment, which would then lead to actual job increases? Fake it til you make it at the macroeconomic level?

[wareagle]

but if that happens, Trump might take credit and a lot of folks seem more troubled by that than by your scenario coming to pass. None of those companies made such announcements during Obama's time. Trump may well suck but some CEOs seem to like a business guy being in office. We'll see.

[Gadfly]

but if that happens, Trump might take credit and a lot of folks seem more troubled by that

But there is no politically feasible way to criticize someone for a good economy, so if all this comes to pass these people will have to stew in their hatred silently.

[BearOdinson]

The bully pulpit has been around a long time. Just because Trump uses Twitter doesn't make it any different.

And I seriously doubt any of the CEOs of these big corporations were "afraid" Trump would cause the government to hurt their corporations. They know it would take laws passed by Congress. They may be afraid of public opinion, but so what. That isn't fundamentally different than Lady Gaga saying boycott Hobby Lobby.

Wake me when Trump calls in the Army to nationalize Walmart.

[Fk Censorship]

The fact that Trump revived protectionism as a "real" policy is dangerous to the long term health of the US (and the world). Symbolism has effects (remember"trayvon could have been my son?") And we have the right to criticize harmful symbolism, when it comes from a public person.

[Half-Virtue, Half-Vice]

Does this mean America won't actually be great?

[Ken Shultz]

Someone should probably point out what's happened on Wall Street since Trump was elected.

The Russell 2000 keeps rallying in anticipation of corporate tax reform and deregulation.

If Trump signs corporate tax reform and deregulates left and right, we'll see some substantial economic growth because of that--and it will be because Donald Trump was elected President.

We wouldn't be talking about any of that if Hillary Clinton had been elected.

[Ken Shultz]

"It''s probably going to continue, though, because when the president-elect is doling out favor and criticism based on individual circumstances for specific businesses, all businesses have a pretty strong incentive to tell him exactly what he wants to hear."

Let's not miss the forest for the trees.

The purpose of Trump's bully pulpit strategy on this isn't to create jobs, specifically. It's to win Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. If Trump wants to win reelection, he'll need to win all of those states all over again. It's about winning votes.

I'm not sure we should complain about Trump actually doing nothing and claiming credit. The alternative probably isn't to do nothing and not claim credit. The most likely alternative is that he'd actually start doing something--and we don't want that, do we?

I'd rather Obama had simply given lip service to saving the UAW. Instead, he nationalized GM, ripped Chrysler's bond holders off, and renegotiated two trade agreements (with South Korea and Colombia) specifically so that the UAW approved of them. Trump's mouth service is significantly superior from a libertarian perspective. Let's hope Trump keeps running his mouth and doing nothing.

[Gadfly]

Let's hope Trump keeps running his mouth and doing nothing.

If he does this, it may also have the secondary benefit of sucking all of the oxygen out of the room and allowing some actual reforms to get passed without the pushback from the press. Some of the cabinet choices seem primed to implement some good reforms, and it would be easier for them to do so while the press is distracted by the loud-mouth in the oval office.

[FD]

You strike at the root opportunity, albeit the root disease, as well.
The royalty comes and goes, but the bureaucracy metastasizes. Forever.

[safuzucof]

I've made $64,000 so far this year working online and I'm a full time student. Im using an online business opportunity I heard about and I've made such great money. It's really user friendly and I'm just so happy that I found out about it. Heres what I do,
============> http://www.homejobs7.com

[Ken Shultz]

You're worse than Trump.

[neoteny]

Worse than Trump University.

[Mad Squirrels]

Putin knows he's not the image he projects. Trump really thinks he's the image he's created. Putin is a corrupt manipulator. Trump is a salesman who believes his own pitch. I think we have enough intelligent people in our country that we'll be able to separate out the good from the foolish. The good? His pointing to the "swamp", something that definitely needs to be drained, and he's right in that he's been part of that swamp and would know how it works. The bad? Does he have the ethics and ability to actually follow through on his promises? His having been mummy & daddy's darling seems to have clouded his self-assessment.

[Mad Squirrels]

Putin knows he's not the image he projects. Trump really thinks he's the image he's created. Putin is a corrupt manipulator. Trump is a salesman who believes his own pitch. I think we have enough intelligent people in our country that we'll be able to separate out the good from the foolish. The good? His pointing to the "swamp", something that definitely needs to be drained, and he's right in that he's been part of that swamp and would know how it works. The bad? Does he have the ethics and ability to actually follow through on his promises? His having been mummy & daddy's darling seems to have clouded his self-assessment.

[MikeP2]

"What's the point of Trump's behavior?"

Apparently you need to take some marketing courses.
Trump is selling himself to the America people. He is laying the groundwork for the support to move the political winds in the direction he wants to go. He is using energetic positivity that implies he has a grand wonderful vision and people need to get on board or be left behind. It's mostly carrot with an implied stick. yeh, there is some negativity woven in to form the 'stick', but the dominant message is "yeh us"

The difference is that Dems use guilt and negativity to promote themselves. Instead of "yeh us", it's "lets count the ways the country sucks". As the Dems put it, America is full of hate and bigotry. Greedy 1%ers and evil capitalists are keeping everyone down and if the Reps get in charge it will be a Klan and Big-oil sponsored war on everything wonderful. The Dems use no carrot/stick. They just use a cattle prod to guilt and threaten people to move forward.

We'll see how it works out, but if you don't recognize how much America is tired of the negativity, then you haven't been paying attention.

[Mad Squirrels]

I am one of those who are "tired of the negativity". In one sense, you're right: Trump has indeed promoted a we Americans sales campaign; I' wondering if he has the ability to follow through. I am not heartened that, in wanting to toss Abominationcare, he wants to put in yet more socialized medicine, a slightly different version with his brand stamped on it. Why not get rid of nationalized medicine altogether? I think Gary Johnson was onto something when he suggested the idea of the various medical industries and insurance having to post their prices as a way to encourage competition. Can you imagine going into a store or shopping online and having no prices available? Because a third party by way of insurance has been involved, neither doctors nor care recipients have cared about costs. This has created padding all the way around. Let medical care return to the market, not the government. Bring in price transparency. That's something Congress can do. Get insurance companies out of it and especially gov peddling insurance. Let us be responsible for our own medical bills. If we have competition in the market, I think we'll find that medicine becomes affordable for all.

[XM]

These businesses aren't really bowing to Trump. They're trying to protect their place in the American marketplace in this era of populism.

Hollywood can boycott the hell out of Trump because everyone will watch their big films no matter what. Walmart (or any other volume businesses) and the auto industry cannot risk confrontation or boycott efforts from the white middle class. That's why Shinzo Abe made a point to visit Trump at the risk of slighting Obama, who was still sitting president.

And while the left truly detests Trump, his brand of populism is definitely in right now. The Bernie Sanders wing of the dems was always in favor of tariffs and shutting down the TPP. When was the left against protectionism anyways?

Trump's ego is definitely something that worries me. Only his most devoted fans won't recognize that a 35% "tariff" on American products made abroad will be a real job killer. I'm afraid he'll try to ram through his own personal agenda regardless of public opinion, just Obama. And unlike him, Trump won't have the media on his side.

[Vladilyich]

What many (including media) have missed in the past few days, is that Trump has not only stated, but has begun, to DEVALUE the U.S. dollar. I have seen yesterday and today, that foreign curencies are growing stronger in relation to the U.S. Dollar. The stated purpose is to make American goods cheaper on foreign markets so we can sell more . The actual result is that foreign goods (i.e., Chinese, Japanese, Bangladeshi) are much more expensive for Americans to buy. Since the U.S. is no longer a manufacturing country, we're screwed and only the major corporations will make out.

If my $10 bill only has the buying power of a Y2K single, I've been had somewhere along the line. I may have $1000 in the bank, but I can only buy $100 in 2016 goods.

Even the Canadian dollar is rapidly raising to be on par with the U.S. dollar. Canada is a manufacturing country and a major energy producer. The U.S. BUYS more oil from Canada than they do from ALL of OPEC combined. You're about to witness a major transfer of wealth, not from the poor to the rich, but due north!

[neoteny]

Even the Canadian dollar is rapidly raising to be on par with the U.S. dollar.

No it isn't really.

[Dadlobby]

The middle class has been thrown under the bus by the socialist democrats. There are 7 million men, 25-54, outside the labor force who have just given up looking as opportunity isn't there. Trump promised to get good jobs here for them. The sucking up by corporations is because they all have been at the corporate welfare teat of this nanny state and they fear a President who may cut them off if they don't play his game of politics. Good for him.

[hejamu]

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[Locris]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/im.....mp-impact/

Must have scared the shit out of the IMF too.

[geo]

"I've written before that it's dangerous for a president to meddle in the economy on such a personal level"

But not nearly as dangerous when that meddling is not transparent, as has been standard practice. Transparency is a refreshing new experience.

[fedenicov]

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[kenzy5]

For example, G.M. had been planning a $1 billion investment (and the 1,500 jobs that will come with it) in U.S. manufacturing operations since 2014. Wal-Mart's announcement that it will add 10,000 jobs is part of pre-scheduled annual hiring increases and comes at the same time that the retailer is closing more than 200 under-performing stores and cutting thousand of jobs, NBC reported.
????? ????? ???
????? ???? 2018
Trump's response to learning that some companies might be duping him with phony job creation announcements was pretty much exactly what you would expect. After NBC ran its story on Tuesday, Trump tweeted angrily about the suggestion that he wasn't personally responsible for the job announcements.

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