Trump's bad deal for America

Before he has even become president, Donald Trump is already wasting the American people's money on lucrative giveaways to big business.

On November 30, Trump bragged he had "kept our companies and jobs in the U.S." This was in relation to the air conditioner company Carrier that had announced last February it would be shutting its factory in Indiana and moving operations to Mexico, resulting in a shift of more than 1,000 jobs.

At the time, Trump pledged he would prevent Carrier from moving. It was one of the big promises of his campaign that he would stop American companies from opening factories in foreign countries.

Trump said a lot of fantastical things on the campaign trail. Now that he has to face the constraints of reality, we are seeing how his style of governance will actually look. The reality, it appears, is far more favorable to those businesses that are "moving jobs overseas" and less favorable to the Americans supposedly "victimized" by the presence of cheap imported goods in their supermarkets. Rather than threats and intimidation, Trump's plan for getting jobs back is bribery.

It is reported that Indiana, whose governor, Mike Pence, just happens to be Trump's pick for vice president, will pay Carrier $7 million in the form of tax breaks. Now, Carrier has announced it will keep 1,000 or so jobs in Indiana indefinitely, while still creating 700 to 1,300 jobs in Mexico.

Essentially, then, Trump is rewarding any big business that threatens to "move jobs" out of his country. Companies that have never thought of closing, and never issued any threats in this regard, didn't get the special tax breaks.

With Trump subsidizing American companies opening up in Mexico, he might just be encouraging others to do the same -- the exact opposite of what he was campaigning on.

However, it works out well for Trump politically, at least in the short term. He can brag about helping American workers and claim credit for a deal. He appeared at an event at a Carrier factory the next day. Carrier, meanwhile, can get tax breaks and good publicity while staying in the good graces of the soon-to-be members of the administration. It's a win-win deal for the elite.

But 1,000 jobs are a pittance in a country where 181,000 new jobs are produced every month. And the millions of Americans who could lose government-subsidized health insurance when the Republicans repeal Obama's healthcare reform bill might wonder why Trump would have the government spend money to provide for unemployed Carrier workers, but not on healthcare for the unemployed and low-wage earners.

Trump and the Republicans even pledged to freeze new hiring by the federal government, partly on the argument that it isn't the government's job to provide jobs. Somehow, though, they think it is the government's job to spend taxpayer money on private companies hiring people.

It does benefit the wealthy investors of Carrier's parent company who will see their company's earnings increase. The general gist of Trump's philosophy is of government doling out corporate welfare to wealthy businessmen.

He was doing this kind of dealing from the other side ever since he developed his first hotel while taking a 40-year tax abatement perk from the city of New York. During the campaign, he bragged (and exaggerated) about how easily he can buy off politicians -- having given hundreds of thousands to both Democratic and Republican politicians, including Hillary Clinton.

It was revealed that, for more than a decade, he paid no income taxes due to creative accounting measures involving such sweeteners as debt forgiveness.

If this is how Trump treats his proclaimed enemies, his longtime friends must be salivating. Trump is known for relying on intense loyalty. Already he has rewarded many of his contributors with advisory roles and cabinet positions. The positions of Energy Secretary and Interior Secretary, which are supposed to keep oversight over oil and other exploitative industries, are reportedly being offered to oil industry executives who contributed to the Trump campaign.

Trump still owns and serves as president of his own company, which owns property and does business in many countries around the world. He has said that he has some kind of mysterious plan that he will unveil later for scaling back the conflict of interest, yet already he has met with foreign business partners and posed for photos used for self-promotion.

He has discussed his business interests with foreign leaders and invited the executive vice president of his company to meet with the Prime Minister of Japan.

The Trump administration is looking like it could be one of the most corrupt American presidencies ever. The Carrier deal is just the start.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

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