The Great Job Exodus Is Upon Us: Trump's Promise To Save American Labor Is Already A Bust

Kali Holloway

The Great Job Exodus Is Upon Us: Trump’s Promise To Save American Labor Is Already A Bust

April 29, 2017 10:59 am

One of the many impossible promises Donald Trump made on the campaign trail was that he, and he alone, would be able to stem the tide of American jobs moving overseas. Though it was on its face a lie as unbelievable and untenable as all the other lies, it only further solidified Trump’s “America First” bonafides with his base.

Fast-forward to nearly 100 days into Trump’s presidency, and his casting of himself as a hybrid strongman-miracle worker seems only slightly less absurd than his supporters’ continued belief in this invention. Not only has Trump not been the great job savior he proclaimed himself, but thousands of jobs continue to flow to places like Mexico and China.

One day after he vowed to exit NAFTA, a ThinkProgress analysis found that “since Trump was sworn in on January 20, at least 11,934 American jobs have either been moved abroad or are in the process of leaving the country.” The figure is based on data from the Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance program, but since there’s no agency or organization that keeps exact tabs on the number of jobs leaving America for cheaper environs abroad, “the actual number is almost certainly much higher.”

ThinkProgress’ investigation is aligned with recent reports of individual companies shipping thousands of jobs beyond America’s borders. A Bloomberg report from March found that:

Illinois Tool Works Inc. will close an auto-parts plant in Mazon, Illinois, this month and head to Ciudad Juarez. Triumph Group Inc. is reducing the Spokane, Washington, workforce that makes fiber-composite parts for Boeing Co. aircraft and moving production to Zacatecas and Baja California. TE Connectivity Ltd. is shuttering a pressure-sensor plant in Pennsauken, New Jersey, in favor of a facility in Hermosillo.