A new report from Axios gives us more insight as it pertains to Donald Trump’s stance on NAFTA.
The White House will never admit this publicly, but the president is developing a softer attitude towards the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Five sources who’ve spoken privately with Trump about NAFTA say he’s taking more seriously the risks of withdrawing the U.S. from the trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
A conga-line of Republican senators have met with the president and explained to him why they consider NAFTA so important to their states. Two arguments have helped change Trump’s thinking:
- Withdrawing from NAFTA might interrupt the stock market’s record-breaking run under his presidency. When it comes to bragging rights, Trump views the Dow Jones Industrial average as a useful substitute for his poll numbers. Though he told the WSJ that he thought U.S. markets would go up if he terminated NAFTA, sources who’ve spoken with the president say that privately he’s less certain of that — and is loathe to jeopardize the stock market’s record-breaking streak.
- Withdrawing from NAFTA would harm farmers and agricultural communities — whom Trump considers “my people.”
This report likely has a lot of truth to it. Donald Trump is riding high right now and might not want to shake up something like NAFTA. Trump may not like the deal but if he doesn’t feel his base is that attached to it he might put it on the shelf. With that being said the media could also be wrong. NAFTA is a way Trump can get Mexico to pay for his Wall. NAFTA was also a campaign promise of his. As usual, predicting Trump’s next move is impossible. He is a deal maker and uses everything in his arsenal to make deals.
