Trump has no authority to do anything to Carrier Corp before Jan 20 (inauguration day?). He simply made them an EXAMPLE during the campaign, as a LARGE corp in the news, who had decided to close the manufacturing plant in Indiana and move it lock stock & barrel to Mexico.
After Trump became PEOTUS, Carrier got worried about the threat of 35% tariff and started a new dialog with state of Indiana and a deal was reached to save 1100 American jobs in return for Some tax benefits. Keep in mind 1100 jobs equates to $50-60 Million payroll EVERY YEAR. Economists claim that $1 in manufacturing payroll creates $6 peripheral economic activity. IOW, Indiana saves the loss of $300 million ANNUAL economic activity by Carrier staying in Indiana. The tax incentives given to Carrier Corp are smaller by orders of magnitude.
This is not exactly crony capitalism, since Trump benefits nothing from Carrier. This is opposite of Solyndra where that corporation gave substantial contributions to democrats and received federal backed loans in return.
I do understand the point that Carrier received a tax deal, which other corporations did not. That could change after Trump Admin is officially in power. As a general policy, it could be as simple as imposing tariffs on any corporation which has existing manufacturing facilities in the United States, and decide to move them abroad. Therefore it will apply to all of them, and not only the cronies, which Trump has none, because as opposed to the other republican candidates, he was the only candidate without ultra rich sugar daddies pushing the cheap labor express.
Excellent post. I might wish to share it.