It’s time for Trump to remember why his voters put him in the White House against all odds.
Let me jog his memory: It means America First, not Nobel Peace Prize attempts at settling tribal rivalries. Nor does it mean building ballrooms for foreign subjects and swamp things partying in the East Wing while the plebs scream over the rising cost of living. A bad look (even if we like the ballroom and love the peace.)
Trump’s base is loudly demanding he remember his populist nationalist credentials. He was never elected to be your usual foreign-focused President. No one wants that Trump.
And so with the Gaza deal signed and the Asia trip over, it is time to turn inward.
Trump came home to a base tired of hearing about Israel, Ukraine or getting China (for the third time since 2018) to commit to buying more soybeans and stop selling chemicals to fentanyl labs in Mexico.
Rich Baris, dubbed “The People’s Pundit” on social media, said on Oct. 25 that “the general consensus is that the Trump Administration is too focused on foreign policy and not enough on domestic issues that got him elected. Pop the bubble or it’ll be too late.”
Baris released a poll on Monday showing Trump voters prefer America First more than traditional Republicans. Those guys are OG globalists. We all know it.
A Pew Research Center poll said half of those surveyed favored Trump paying less attention to problems overseas. Trump’s approval rating is at its lowest level since January, at 45%, down when he had an historic 56% in January.
A focus on the domestic agenda will help.
The Trade Agenda Is America First
The Asia trip was part of the Trump trade agenda. The trade agenda is the domestic agenda.
It’s going to take time to unwind policies that favored American investment abroad, outsourcing labor and importing labor (and Democratic Party pawns).
The America First trade agenda won’t fix all problems, like ludicrous health insurance premiums and rising electric bills, but rebuilding American manufacturing is Trump’s main fix. He has to deliver on that. Trump needs to explain how the America First trade agenda is going.
Since the trade imbroglio with Canada and Mexico, GM has increased hiring in Indiana instead of expanding production on assembly lines in Canada and Mexico. AI might be laying off tech workers, but GM in Indiana is hiring.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation estimates auto-industry tax revenue in Indiana at $2.15 billion. It supports around 217,300 jobs in the state. Remove the America First trade idea and those jobs head to Mexico.
Trump ended the e-commerce duty free de minimis rule, a big problem for retail. The Retail Industry Leaders Association likes it. Retailers like Macy’s and their roughly 123,000 employees live another day.
Apple announced major investments this year of $500 billion over the next four years. This includes plans for a new factory in Houston to build servers. Apple also launched an American Manufacturing Program to incentivize its supply chain partners to make more components domestically. This includes partnerships with suppliers like Corning. They’ll make iPhone and Apple Watch cover glass in Kentucky. Apple also said it plans to create a domestic chip supply chain producing over 19 billion chips in 2025, across 24 factories in 12 states.
Companies invest in the U.S. all the time, but I don’t think the above happens without the America First trade agenda.
The Trump administration has launched 12 new Section 232 tariff investigations this year—the most consequential effort this century to entice companies to invest domestically. Only three Section 232 tariffs are in effect – automotive, copper, and lumber. More are coming.
The ‘Cost of Living’ Narrative
Cost of living is a big issue. Tariffs are an easy blame.
Recent articles about new layoffs at GM frame it as a tariff problem, but that’s due to lackluster EV sales and changes to the Inflation Reduction Act that might have hurt their battery plant.
The cost of living is rising because of services and the government. Some can argue that food costs are up because of tariffs, but most of the food we import comes from Mexico and Canada and it is duty free. We import rice, but rice prices are down 1.5% from September 2024.
State taxes and fees are quietly increasing total household expenses. We are being nickeled and dimed by state governments, probably run by the people blaming Trump for rising costs.
President Trump already made the most important deal of his life—his promise to the American people to end U.S. dependence on China and rebuild our industrial capacity so blue-collar workers and the middle class can thrive and see their wages rise over inflation.
This post-globalist vision is the economic core of America First. It will reclaim America’s economic independence. When we are less dependent, we produce more goods at home. When we are producing more at home, we have more labor and more opportunities.
If Trump and his top surrogates fail to explain this and provide examples, the “cost of living” narrative will be used by the Democrats to frame Trump and win back the House. We know what happens after that.
Kenneth Rapoza is a former BRICS senior contributor for Forbes, and a former Sao Paulo-based journalist for the Wall Street Journal. He is the senior analyst at the Coalition for a Prosperous America.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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