It is widely recognized that the election campaign of 2016 has aroused unprecedented interest among public. In the center of everybody’s attention has basked not an unusual for the limelight individual – multibillionaire Donald Trump. What made him so popular apart from the fact that he possibly really earned tremendous amount of money himself?
Firstly and foremostly, Trump has raised urgent questions, in particular America’s relationship with the rest of the world, illegal immigration and the way America should handle world trade (Sides 132). In the present paper we are to focus on the last of the issues. So what are the views of the Republican frontrunner within this context?
Actually, in regard to Mexico, it is well known that Trump’s position has been exceedingly intransigent – he will build the wall at the expense of the America’s southern neighbor (O’Connell 78). Trump’s opponents are increasingly worried that intransigency might go beyond tough rhetorics and result in trade wars. Whether this is the case or not remains to be seen, and yet at this stage of campaigning Trump’s victory is far from being sealed. Should he, perhaps, change his intransigency?
Also within this paper we are supposed to compare Trump’s approach to that of other candidates. We think it makes sense to do it on an example Trump versus Cruz since Ted Cruz has been very likely to be a competitor to Trump in the struggle for republican nomination.
Cruz’s attitude on international trade has been characterized by negative evaluation of Obama’s liberal policies on the issue and appeal to republican conservatism presupposing abolition of the liberal clauses. However, Ted Cruz never gone so far as to propagate hatred or trade wars.
He has continually stressed that he has been for free trade but with a reservation that free trade laws by no means should lead to sweeping changes within the US legislation. In this light Ted Cruz has rejected trade promotion authority (TPA) claiming that it will change immigration laws in their essence contributing to the problem of illegal immigration.
Here we can see inconsistency in Cruz’s policy since a few months earlier he had approved of TPA. The explanation of the altered attitude on the part of the candidate can be found in the growing popularity of Trump with his more rigid and tougher way of handling the issue. As a result, Ted Cruz has very likely made a decision to adopt some of his main opponent’s intransigency but not going so far as to touch upon what to others could look like a racist discourse.
Firstly, it is very probable that in short term both Trump’s and Cruz’s potential laws on trade will lead to surge in payment for ordinary Americans in sharp contrast to illegals who will be losing jobs. On the other hand, if America starts waging wars with its neighbors as Trump has anticipated though very evasively not to arouse voters’ concern, the country may be in a bigger a trouble than we might suppose at this stage. Neither will it be beneficial to America’s neighbors and trade partners. A glimmer of hope remains that whatever the odds, the countries will go with the imposed conditions of trade, thus refusing to engage in the conflict, but by no means can it be guaranteed.
Works cited
John Sides (2015). "Why is Trump surging? Blame the media." Washington Post.
O'Connell, Gerard (February 18, 2016). "Aboard Plane Home from Mexico, Pope Francis Responds to Questions on Donald Trump". America: The National Catholic Review. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
