EditorAfter fighting ObamaTrade for years, union boss gives President Trump zero credit for killing TPP.
On his first Monday in office as President of the United States, Donald Trump did what liberals and unions had called on, demanded, and pled with Barack Obama to do for the last several years: Trump officially killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (aka Obamatrade).
In a USA Today column published Monday evening, however, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka praised the death of the TPP and gave Trump very little (if any) credit for killing the much-hated trade deal.
In fact, despite being ignored by the Obama Administration and Hillary Clinton’s election-related duplicity on TPP, Trumka only mentions once (in bold) in his entire column.
On Monday, the United States withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. President Trump may have signed the TPP’s death certificate, but it was working people and our progressive allies who killed this unfair agreement. For years, we have mobilized and organized in opposition to the TPP, winning the debate in Congress and on the campaign trail.
While the 2016 election was full of division, Americans across the political spectrum are united in their desire for trade deals that create jobs and empower people, not corporations. With the TPP now off the table, the next step is to renegotiate the job-killing North American Free Trade Agreement. As always, the devil is in the details.
In statements, Senate Democrats like Senators Bernie Sanders [VT] and Bob Casey [PA] gave the President more credit that Trumka seemed willing to do.
“If President Trump is serious about a new policy to help American workers, then I would be delighted to work with him,” Sanders stated.
“I support President Trump’s issuing of an executive orders that will pull the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and his recent steps to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),” Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) said in a statement.
Withdrawing from #TPP & moving to renegotiate #NAFTA are good 1st steps from @POTUS, but more must be done to keep his word to WI workers.
— Sen. Tammy Baldwin (@SenatorBaldwin) January 23, 2017
Between his pre-inaugural “victory” on keeping hundreds of Carrier jobs in the U.S. and commitments from other companies to create jobs in the U.S., that Trump, in his first full day in office, did what unions could not get their own Democratic president to do shows a fundamental shift in politics that stands to further marginalize already-marginalized labor leaders.
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