The Wall Street Journal’s right-leaning editorial board has been critical of Donald Trump, but the paper found at least something to like in the Republican nominee’s economic speech.
“The plan Mr. Trump laid out at the Detroit Economic Club on Monday is his most detailed so far and marks a step forward on regulation, taxes and energy,” the Journal said Monday night. “He pitched his program as a path out of the slow-growth status quo, which is a debate the country needs and is an issue on which the polls show Mr. Trump has credibility with voters.”
Trump’s speech was largely a call for tax reductions, loosening of government regulation on businesses and increases in energy production.
The Journal, however, took exception with one of Trump’s proposals: renegotiating international trade deals that he says have cost American jobs and left the working class in ruins.
Trump has long said he would punish companies that leave the U.S. to build their products overseas.
“The question with Mr. Trump is how much his trade agenda would interfere with his pro-growth domestic policies,” said the Journal. “If Republicans in Congress blocked his worst trade instincts, the damage could be small. If he used executive powers to wage a trade war, look out. With the mercurial New Yorker, you never know.”
