President-elect Donald Trump is signaling loud and clear that he’s dead serious about his No. 1 campaign promise: jobs, jobs, jobs — especially good-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree.
The top symbol of that is the deal to save 1,000 jobs at that Carrier plant in Indiana. Trump spoke out often on the campaign trail about those jobs being shipped to Mexico. Now he’s done something about it, two months before even taking office.
The deal’s not perfect: Another 1,000 jobs are still going. And we don’t yet know how much Carrier got from the state (where Veep-elect Mike Pence is still governor).
Nor is bribing companies one by one to not close plants a long-term strategy for saving jobs wholesale, let alone creating new ones. On the other hand, analysts report that one reason Carrier kept the plant open was its expectation of lower corporate taxes and reduced regulation in the Trump era.
The prez-elect deserves credit for that change in outlook — which, of course, also has the Dow reaching all-time highs.
And his picks for Treasury and Commerce, Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, signal more action on the jobs front.
The left will scream about Mnuchin’s time at Goldman Sachs, where he made partner in 1994. But what stands out is that he left the firm in 2002, finding new success on his own. And he’s already said his top priority is delivering regular economic growth far stronger than seen in the Obama era.
Commerce is all about handing out favors in exchange for political support. That won’t be Ross’ approach: After a career that includes saving a lot of “good jobs” by turning around failed industrial firms, he, too, will be focused on jobs.
The economic team will likely be rounded out by free-marketeers on the White House staff and the Council of Economic Advisers and so on. Trump plainly aims to hire eggheads and hands-on leaders as needed.
And specific plans will start coming down the pike soon: doubling down on the US energy revolution, bringing home hundreds of billions in corporate wealth stashed overseas, tax reform to spike growth and so on.
But the bottom line is that Trump is setting up to deliver an economic boom for all Americans.