Donald Trump is a very polarizing figure; indeed he tries to be. He has used essentially a modified version of Da’esh’s strategy (polarize and mobilize); they post a beheading clip, Trump tweets. They engage in killing, he engages in character assassination. Polarization builds a stronger, if smaller, base of support than a conciliatory, moderate, unifying strategy. It creates fanaticism on both sides; supporters are blindly defensive and ready to justify anything you say or do; opponents are blindly critical and aggressive, ready to condemn anything you say or do. The great challenge, then, is to remain objective. But ultimately, this is what we have to do.
The thread that runs throughout Trump’s economic rhetoric is his exoneration of corporate decision-makers. He regards them as entirely blameless for the choices they make that negatively impact society. China and Mexico “steal” US jobs; shareholders and CEOs do not choose to outsource; labor unions don’t do enough to keep jobs from being sent oversea, as if workers make corporate decisions. In his mind, the pursuit of maximum profit is a force of nature which corporations are helpless to control. The only way to keep jobs in the US is to appease the insatiable desire for profits by making conditions in America more attractive than conditions in the developing world; it is to ensure corporations that they can make as much money manufacturing at home as they do from outsourcing.
This line of thinking leads to one conclusion: impose Third World conditions on the US labor force and give corporations as much freedom and power in the US that they have in the developing world.