Donald Trump’s appeal is said to be his straight talk. But when it comes to international trade, he sounds like a hypocrite, the classic “Do what I say, not what I do” politician.
While bashing companies for investing in foreign countries, Donald Trump’s own company has shown no inclination to invest and build only in America. In fact, a significant percentage of his company’s hotels and major real estate properties are located abroad.
“Mr. Trump is either inexcusably hypocritical or inexcusably ignorant of economics,” according to Donald J. Boudreaux, a professor of economics at George Mason University. “There is zero economic difference between, say, a U.S. car company’s investments abroad in factories and Mr. Trump’s own investments abroad in hotels: both are meant to improve the bottom line of companies headquartered in the U.S. by taking advantage of profitable economic opportunities outside of the U.S.”
Yet a staple of Trump the candidate’s speeches has been to bash Ford Motor for building a plant in Mexico. “Trump has repeatedly said that if elected, he would not allow Ford to open a new plant in Mexico,” reported the Detroit News. “At his campaign announcement speech in New York in June, Trump said he would call [Ford CEO Mark] Fields to explain the ‘bad news.’”
“Let me give you the bad news: Every car, every truck and every part manufactured in this plant that comes across the border, we’re going to charge you a 35% tax,” Trump said. “They are going to take away thousands of jobs
