The Trump administration has brought tariffs to the forefront of political debate. By pinning the decline of US manufacturing on the shortcomings of trade deals such as NAFTA, Trump has promised working Americans that he would fight to protect and bring back their jobs, especially through protectionist measures.

At no point, however, has Trump talked about or challenged the issue of global capital mobility — the “free trade” of global money flows. Rather than work to prevent corporations from being able to offshore production in the first place, Trump has chosen to pressure other nations into providing US corporations with better positions in global value chains (GVCs).

Donald Trump is selling American workers a false bill of goods. The administration’s policies place pressure on rising capitalist nations that threaten the economic hegemony of American firms by attempting to bully them into compliance with trade deals that are favorable primarily to the US capitalist class, while sidelining the needs of working Americans. Importantly, this does nothing to guarantee the return of manufacturing jobs or a rising share of income for labor in the United States.