Fabrice L. Lohadie — Why Trump’s rise doesn’t terrify me

(The Afro-Libertarian)

Donald Trump’s political rise in the Republican presidential race is alarming many people in this country. Some view his political rise as a testament that (white) Americans are angry against globalization/trade and fear America turning more hispanic. Others, like myself, view Trump’s ascendency as a fad that does not truly represent American stance on several important issues. For sake of brevity, I will focus on two topics that seem to be the cornerstone of Trump’s campaign, globalization/trade and immigration.

Americans are not autarkic 

Trump’s anti-China/trade rhetoric is just a nice applause line to rally the base, but doesn’t really indicate Americans’ stance on globalization. If the majority of Americans were really as autarkic as Trump’s supporters seem to be, America’s import of Chinese goods would show that. However, the opposite is true. As shown below, US trade (deficit) with China is still growing. American appetite for Chinese-made products strongly shows that they are not as sinophobic as Trump make them to be. It is this hunger for made in China goods that is enabling the U.S. consumer-based economy to chug along since China re-invest its trade surplus in U.S. treasuries. So, when it comes to trade and globalization, Americans are a lot more pro-trade than Trump and Sanders make them look.

Read the full article HERE