Trump’s Obsession With Manufacturing Is About Politics, Not Jobs

 At his inauguration, Donald Trump bemoaned “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.” Since his election, he’s boasted about a deal cut with Carrier to keep some of the company’s jobs from moving to Mexico, while either praising or cajoling GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, and Lockheed Martin about American jobs. On the first Monday of his presidency, he invited CEOs and labor leaders to meet with him, all culled from the ranks of manufacturing and construction. And in his first postelection press conference, he promised that he would be the “greatest jobs producer that God ever created.”

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