How Trump's economic policies are hurting the people he promised to protect

Leading representatives across US industry say trade wars will not protect their workers

Donald Trump delivers remarks at a "Salute to Service" dinner held in honor of the nation's military at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia (Reuters)

An integral part of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign platform was his promise to protect US industry while simultaneously pursuing economic deregulation. However, some experts from the industries Mr Trump pledged to protect have said his policies are having the opposite effect.

“I would like to tell the president, ‘Man, you are messing up our market,’” said Kevin Scott, a soybean farmer in South Dakota and the secretary of the American Soybean Association. The idea of changing Nafta, he said, “gives us a lot of heartburn in farm country.”

China’s threat to impose tariffs this week on United States soybeans – in direct response to Mr Trump’s tariffs on other Chinese-made products – have reduced their market prices.

Mr Scott, who voted for Mr Trump, approves of administration efforts to roll back environmental regulations.

But he takes issue with Trump's protectionist impulses.

“If we lose those Chinese and Mexican markets, it will be hard to get them back,” added Mr Scott. China and Mexico are the two biggest markets for American soybean exports.

Resources for the Future, a non-partisan research organisation in Washington, has criticised the Trump administration’s approach as “whack-a-mole policy” that fails to appreciate the complexity of global commerce.

At the very least, the unpredictability of many of Mr Trump’s proposals – the lack of clarity on when or how Nafta might be renegotiated; the risk of potential litigation over his rollback of car pollution rules; the ways in which other countries might retaliate against tariffs – has fostered confusion among US economic actors.

“That just wreaks havoc with American farmers and businesses with the investments they have to make,” said Matthew Slaughter, a professor of international business at Dartmouth College. “It creates massive uncertainty for these industries.”

While car manufacturers had sought looser emissions rules, Mr Trump’s proposed deregulation goes further than expected. Now these same marques are saying it could spawn years of legal battles and perhaps even subject the industry to more regulations, not fewer, if individual states start enforcing their own, separate rules.

They also fear that Mr Trump’s recent threats to impose tariffs on imports of European cars could trigger a trade war, raising prices for all vehicles.

In one recent meeting with Mr Trump, the chief executive of General Motors, Mary Barra, told the president she would be happy with a deal keeping much of the current Obama-level pollution standards in place, while adding sweeteners for car makers like financial credits for companies that invent more fuel-efficient technologies, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

Oil and gas companies are similarly wary of the unintended consequences of Trumpian economics.

They say a Trump administration proposal to bail out the coal industry will cut into their market share, while steel tariffs make their production equipment costlier.

A spokesman for the White House, Raj Shah, acknowledged that while some policies might not always be to the liking of specific industries, “A lot of these groups benefit from broader policies – all these groups benefit from the tax cut and regulatory relief.”

“The only constituency the president is looking out for is the American people,” Mr Shah said.

The New York Times