Donald Trump told supporters it’s time for the U.S. regain its “economic independence” and promised to reverse decades-worth of U.S. trade policies pushed by Hillary Clinton that he says have hurt workers.
“We have become more dependent on foreign countries than ever before,” Trump said Tuesday during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania. “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s time to declare our economic independence once again.”
Fact-Checking Trump's Speech on Trade
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee slammed “a policy of globalization,” that has hurt the middle class and praised voters in Great Britain for choosing to withdraw from the European Union.
“Friends in Britain recently voted to take back control of their economy, politics and borders. I was on the right side of that issue, as you know,” Trump said.
The real estate mogul lumped rival Hillary Clinton with the North American Free Trade Agreement and World Trade Organization, both of which he argued have crippled American manufacturing towns like Monessen, Pennsylvania.
“You will be hurt worse than ever before if she becomes president of the United States,” Trump said of Clinton. “That I can tell you.”