Hopping Off The Trump Train: President’s Policies Hurting His Supporters

As one small business owner said of his support for Donald Trump, “I feel like I’ve been tricked by the devil.”  The Lexington Herald-Leader has a must-read on a Kentucky man who supported Donald Trump but also desperately needs seasonal workers via the government’s H2-B visa program.

• Eddie Devine voted for President Donald Trump because he thought he would be good for American business. Now, he says, the Trump administration’s restrictions on seasonal foreign labor may put him out of business.”
• Devine says it has been years since he could find enough dependable, drug-free American workers for his $12-an-hour jobs mowing and tending landscapes for cemeteries, shopping centers and apartment complexes across Central Kentucky.

So for years, Devine has hired season workers, mostly from Guatemala, to help him with his lawn care business.  But then came restrictions on guest-worker visas.

• “Devine says he lost a $100,000 account because he didn’t have enough men to do the job. He’s worried he may be out of business next year if things don’t improve.”
• “These workers aren’t immigrants, and there is no path to U.S. citizenship. When their seasonal work is done, they return home. That’s why Devine thinks the Trump administration’s stifling of guest-worker programs has more to do with racism than economics. “I think there’s a war on brown people,” he said.”
• “But what makes him most angry is that Trump’s properties in Florida and New York have used 144 H-2B workers since 2016. “I want to know why it’s OK for him to get his workers, but supporters like me don’t get theirs,” Devine said.”
• As for supporting Trump?  “I feel so stupid.”

The Washington Post Daily 202 column is chock full of other examples of Trump’s unintended consequences including:

*An auto plant that makes compact car laying off workers because demand is down…a demand that has slid since Trump relaxed fuel efficiency standards.

*Gas prices, already skyrocketing, may go higher because Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal

*Also, airplane manufacturer Boeing stands to lose $20 billion because of the Iran deal.  The company had contracts with Iran that will go away if the U.S. reimposes sanctions.

*American farmers are also out of luck if Trump’s team can’t work out a trade deal with China.  Soybean farmers sell 60% of their exports to the Chinese.