Two headlines Wednesday struck me as illustrative of the Trump approach to policy and politics. First was “White House readies plan for $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers caught in Trump’s escalating trade war,” followed by “Ivanka Trump shuts down her namesake clothing brand.”
Ivanka’s company employs 18 people in the United States. Her clothes are made in China by workers making $62 for working 60-hour weeks. She also sells clothes made in Bangladesh, Vietnam and South America. An audit done at one of Ivanka’s Chinese factories in 2017 found that less than one third of the workers were offered China’s required benefits, including medical coverage, pensions, maternity leave and compensation for work-related injuries.
Her company doesn’t actually make anything. She licensed her name to a manufacturer named G-III Apparel Group, which made $29.4 million in net sales of Ivanka Trump licensed products in 2017. Ivankadidn’t design the clothes and didn’t monitor the Chinese factories to ensure the basic human rights of the workers. She just made a quick $5 million in 2017 for putting her name on the label.
When Ivanka’s father moved into the White House, she went along. While she put her company in a trust to avoid conflicts of interest, she continued to get financial information about the business and was a walking billboard for the products. She raced to get her company trademarks approved in China ahead of the ethics watchers and her father’s tariff war.
Ivanka Trump has styled herself as an advocate for working women. She supports paid family leave and tax credits to pay for child care. The actual policies that she supported would have resulted in an increased tax credit for her well-heeled friends while leaving out the one-fifth of families who earn too little to claim the credit.
She supported an equal pay law in Germany, while back here in the United States her father revoked the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order 13673 signed by former president Barack Obama (of course). While her own company offers eight weeks of paid maternity leave, her manufacturing partner offers no leave at all. And she has the gall to splash #womenwhowork all over her social media.
President Donald Trump himself had an eventful week last week, starting with a trip to Helsinki to meet with his BFF, Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by days of incoherent explanations about what Trump actually said, ending with an invitation to the White House for Putin followed by a disinvitation because of the “Russia witch-hunt.” Finally, in the Trumpian tradition of diversion through Twitter, Trump threatened Iran with war in ALL CAPS.
The trade war that Trump started in January has escalated, affecting businesses across the country, because China, the European Union and Canada struck back. November is coming, many soybean and pork farmers are living in red states, and the latest polls have Democrats ahead in the generic congressional ballot by as much as 10 percent. And special counsel Robert Mueller is standing outside his door.
By Wednesday, desperate to shore up his base, Trump promised $12 billion in aid for farmers who have been hurt by the tariffs the president has levied on hundreds of Chinese goods. China buys a lot of soybeans, pork, corn, and wheat from American farmers, but they can find soybeans in Brazil. The EU sells pork as does Canada. The tariffs levied by China in response to Trump are affecting a sector of the economy that has struggled with weather, recession and labor shortages due to Trump’s immigration policies.
Trump plans to take the $12 billion from a Depression-era federal agency called the Commodity Credit Corp. The CCC was set up by FDR to helps farmers manage the negative effects of crop cycles and weather disasters. It wasn’t created to compensate for bad policy decisions. His raid of the CCC will leave fewer resources to support farmers through the normal challenges they face every year. Trump is doing what he has always done — act recklessly with someone else’s money.
It should be no surprise that Ivanka’s business didn’t need federal assistance for tariff-related losses. While Trump levied tariffs on over those 800 products made in China, clothing was left alone. It was also no surprise that his tax cut, passed by the GOP-controlled Congress, restored his favorite real estate shelters eliminated by the Reagan tax reform of 1986.
The Trump family never really expected to win the 2016 election, but since their victory they have looked for every opportunity to exploit the office of the president for their own gain. Trump has always believed his own hype, surrounding himself with sycophants and like-minded venal characters.
But now his friends are Vladimir Putin and Kim Jung-un. He is turning a blind eye to the corruption that is rampant in his administration. Mar-a-Lago and the Trump Hotel in D.C. are rolling in money.
The Trumps have only one question when it comes to policy and politics: “What’s in it for us?’
Clare Higgins, of Northampton, a former mayor of the city, is executive director of the nonprofit Community Action Pioneer Valley. She can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.