Republican Party Presumptive Nominee Donald Trump took aim at U.S. free trade deals in a speech delivered in Western Pennsylvania Tuesday.
Mr. Trump painted his likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as a champion of the kind of globalization that has pushed manufacturing jobs overseas.
"This wave of globalization has wiped out totally, totally our middle class," said Trump, standing in front of stacks of compressed metal on the floor of Alumisource, a plant that provides aluminum scrap and other raw materials to the aluminum and steel industries. "It doesn't have to be this way. We can turn it around and we can turn it around fast."
The speech, delivered in the heart of America's struggling rust belt, stressed a central premise of his campaign: that global free trade — a Republican Party staple for decades — has hurt American workers because deals have been negotiated poorly.
The Republican Nominee , Mr. Trump vowed to bring back manufacturing jobs, in part, by slapping tariffs on goods produced by companies that move manufacturing jobs offshore.
It's a message that he's hoping will continue to resonate with the white, working class voters, who powered his primary campaign.
Mr. Trump, in his speech, portrayed Sec. Clinton as an agent of a status quo "that worships globalism over Americanism" and criticized her past support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which he described as "the deathblow for American manufacturing."
He said the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by Bill Clinton, was a "disaster" and pointed to the Clintons support for normalizing trade relations with China.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pushed back against Trump's comments in a string of tweets.
"This wave of globalization has wiped out totally, totally our middle class," said Trump, standing in front of stacks of compressed metal on the floor of Alumisource, a plant that provides aluminum scrap and other raw materials to the aluminum and steel industries. "It doesn't have to be this way. We can turn it around and we can turn it around fast."
The speech, delivered in the heart of America's struggling rust belt, stressed a central premise of his campaign: that global free trade — a Republican Party staple for decades — has hurt American workers because deals have been negotiated poorly.
The Republican Nominee , Mr. Trump vowed to bring back manufacturing jobs, in part, by slapping tariffs on goods produced by companies that move manufacturing jobs offshore.
It's a message that he's hoping will continue to resonate with the white, working class voters, who powered his primary campaign.
He said the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by Bill Clinton, was a "disaster" and pointed to the Clintons support for normalizing trade relations with China.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce pushed back against Trump's comments in a string of tweets.
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