If one thing should be clear in the wake of the election, it is that President Trump is serious about growing U.S. manufacturing. But while he has dominated the economic news with his comments warning companies about offshoring jobs and his involvement in the deal that led Carrier to retain about 800 manufacturing jobs that were previously headed to Mexico, his words and actions have largely elicited derision from economic commentators and analysts. Their dismissive responses have ranged from “this is totally trivial” to “it will never work,” “picking winners only reduces economic welfare,” and “we shouldn’t care about manufacturing, anyway.” Emblematic of this widespread pundit opinion that the president’s pronouncements have been nonsense, or worse, business school professor Stephen Kobrin writes, “What happens when people realize they’ve been taken?” In other words, the consensus among elites is that the president is pulling a fast one on ignorant and gullible voters.
