When President Trump stepped on stage before an audience of aerospace contractors in Wisconsin, flanked by images of the F-35 Lightning and C-130 Hercules transport plane, he had two things to sell: his new North American trade deal and himself.
“The previous administration, they allowed foreign nations to plunder our wealth and to pillage our factories,” he said, as he brought his mix of prepared remarks and freewheeling thoughts to an applause line. “They sold out our workers and they hollowed out our industrial heartland. But those days are over.”
The location, a small warehouse-like space outside Milwaukee, was as important as his message in trying to sell his new trade deal with Mexico and Canada.
In 2016, Trump became the first Republican to win Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan in 1984. The state was meant to be part of the Democrats’ blue wall against Trump, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania. But Trump’s capture of the Badger State highlighted what critics saw as Hillary Clinton’s arrogance in failing to visit even once during the campaign.
“I’m thrilled to be back in your great state — a state that I won,” said Trump to laughter. “And we won it not so late in the evening. A little bit early in the evening, actually, which is even better.”
He won the state by just over 22,000 votes and has signaled every intention of trying to repeat the feat. His trip to Derco, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, was his sixth visit to Wisconsin since that 2016 victory, a clear sign that his campaign sees the state’s 10 electoral college votes as crucial to 2020’s path to White House.
It will not be easy. Trump has lost an ally in Scott Walker, who was ousted from the governor’s mansion in November. And Republicans lost every statewide contest in the fall including those for senator and attorney general, defeats blamed in part on the administration’s trade policies.
Mexican tariffs on dairy imports are widely cited as hurting the state’s vital agricultural sector, while China, the state’s fifth most important market, has imposed a 25 percent tariff on American cheese as part of the ongoing trade dispute. At the same time Harley-Davidson, headquartered in Milwaukee, fell foul of the president’s Twitter feed when it suggested it might switch some manufacturing to Europe to avoid U.S. steel tariffs.
The latest polls suggest Trump has work to do. His job approval in Wisconsin stands at 46 percent according to the most recent Marquette Law School Poll.
So where better than Wisconsin to lay out his pitch for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement?
“The USMCA will be the most modern, cutting-edge trade agreement in history, with the strongest protections for the American worker ever put in any trade agreement,” he said, adding that unions had been pushing for the provisions for years.
The deal has yet to be ratified by Congress, but supporters say it will help the state’s embattled dairy farmers and manufacturing sector, which supports more than 450,000 jobs.
“In Wisconsin, we have a trade surplus with Mexico and Canada,” Ron Johnson, Republican senator for the state, told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I am happy to have NAFTA updates, but we need to get it ratified. This is important for Wisconsin.”
The new deal is designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, ratified in 1993. Political wrangling continues as Democrats try to stiffen labor and environmental provisions. The result is that Republican hopes have receded of steering a bill through Congress before the August recess.
Either way, all the signs are that the USMCA will be a familiar refrain as Trump attempts to rebuild a winning coalition around protecting American workers and their jobs. And he will be a familiar sight in Wisconsin.
“See you in a couple of months,” he told NBC’s local affiliate. “We will be around a lot.”
