Trump
products are not role models for “Made in America”
What’s the matter with Donald
and The Trumpeteers? Why won’t they stand up for the American workers and
business owners who make their products right here in the United States?
Oh, yeah, I know they talk a
good game. Trump himself even issued a bold, star-spangled executive order
promoting the purchase of “American-made goods” produced by American labor.
We consumers respond positively
to that pitch, generally preferring to buy everything from mattresses to hockey
pucks that are manufactured here at home.
For example, take Patriot Puck.
What’s not to like about this corporation, which literally wraps its hockey pucks in American flag packaging and proudly advertises that they are “the only American-made hockey puck”?
What’s not to like about this corporation, which literally wraps its hockey pucks in American flag packaging and proudly advertises that they are “the only American-made hockey puck”?
Well, sadly, one thing not to
like is that the puck-seller’s pitch was a lie. Its product actually turned out
to be made in China. Such a deceptive sales scam is not just unethical — it’s a
federal crime.
Saddest of all, though, is that
when honest competitors and defrauded consumers protested the firm’s blatant
deceit, Trump’s Federal Trade Commission appointees proved to be Made-in-America wimps.Far from standing up for U.S. workers, they coddled the job-stealing culprit. They assessed no fines, required no admission of the obvious corporate crime, and let it keep all the profits it pocketed from the fraud.
They didn’t even make “Patriot” Puck notify customers of its false marketing scam.
Instead, Trump’s regulatory “toughies” insisted that the threat of future fines would keep such outlaws in check.
Seriously? The real crime here
is our that our nation’s president is mocking the plight of America’s
manufacturing workers by making a spectacle of standing up for them — then
kowtowing to corporations that flagrantly violate Made-in-America laws. It’s a
shameful political fraud.
OtherWords columnist Jim
Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. Distributed by
OtherWords.org.