[SmokingJoe]

Ok. But in my lifetime(I am not 100 yet), the Republican Party has always been for free trade. The Dems not so much.
Bottom line: Right now it's the GOP that stands for free trade.
The trouble was bad trade agreements plus cheating by other countries. President Trump has done a lot to remedy that.
Don't forget that the the US is the second biggest exporter on the planet, accounting for a massive $1.6 Trillion in exports. Trade is a two way street.

[NobleFree]

Right now it's the GOPe that stands for free trade.

Fixed it. Trump Republicans stand for America First.

[Pelham]

“Don’t forget that the the US is the second biggest exporter on the planet, accounting for a massive $1.6 Trillion in exports. Trade is a two way street.”

Which is great until you break down what we have been exporting since the gutting of American manufacturing and its wholesale replacement by China.

A condition facilitated by a financial and political class that are American in name only, but that paid off handsomely for Clinton/Obama Democrats and Bush Republicans. See John Solomon’s new book “Fallout”. See Rosemary Gibson’s “China Rx”.

Economists like Alan Tonelson and Clyde Prestowitz have pointed out that where we once exported high value added manufactured goods, we now have the raw material trade profile of a third world economy.

Our major exports to China have been cardboard, recycled. Timber and raw lumber. Coal. Soybeans. Pork. And a lot of that is from companies here in America that are now owned by China.