Mar-a-Lago Just take Mar-A-Lago, Trumps pricey club in Florida. The working man can't be a member what with a $200,000 entry fee, probably at least 4X his yearly salary. And he can't work there either because the club is nearly totally staffed by foreigners (granted the work contracts are for 8 mo. because it is closed for 4 mo. in the summer): But at his private club in south Florida, he has filled his staff almost exclusively with imported foreign workers. And he has been doing it for years. The U.S. Department of Labor has confirmed to CNN that between 2013 and fall 2015, Trump's Mar-a-Lago club posted 250 seasonal job openings and filled just 4 of those jobs with American workers. The club requested the rest of the staff be temporarily imported through the Federal government's H-2B visa process. Basically, Mar-a-Lago brings in its seasonal staff from overseas.*
Chinese Steel And Aluminum At the second presidential debate, Donald Trump asked the American public to "look at what’s happening to steel and the cost of steel, and China dumping vast amounts of steel all over the United States, which essentially is killing our steelworkers and our steel companies." We did and so did Newsweek. The report, published last week, showed us yet again that all Trump does is run his mouth and pad his pockets. The Newsweek report found Trump used cheap Chinese steel and aluminum in two of his recent construction projects and went to great lengths to cover his tracks. Donald Trump turned his back on the U.S. steel and aluminum industries but, somehow, is claiming to be its savior.**
Health Care The item on health care is a bit different, but it does involve throwing Trump's core "under the bus." The original Trump-Ryan health care bill was going to take away the Medicaid expansion in the ACA m a decrease in Medicare that would fall mainly on Trump's supporters. I don't claim to fully understand the revised plan called the MacArthur Amendment, said to maybe be able to pass the House.*** No mention in the summaries talk about the decrease in Medicaid. Perhaps the item is covered by the "limited waver option?" Can states keep their expanded Medicaid if they apply for a waver? I guess we'll have to wait to see about Medicaid. As it was the key to pulling the original ACHA Plan, I'm surprised that no mention is made of it in the MacArthur Amendment. Note added April 21: Morning Joe this morning sated that the decrease in Medicaid is still in the revised bill. If so, I doubt it will pass.
Cement But how about the Great Wall Of Trump, surely that will be built of U.S. cement? Well, if the wall is built, there is a significant chance that it will be built with Mexican concrete: Cemex Is Best Positioned To Benefit From The Wall, And Does Not Have A Major Competitor In The United States
According to information published by the Global Cement Directory, Cemex is the largest producer of cement in North American and does not have any American competitors of equal size. It has been described in a diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks as being one of "Mexico's monopolists" with a market share of 87.6%. Data collected using the installed capacity of companies’ integrated cement plants shows that the US does not even break the top ten list of cement producers globally. Cemex, however, ranks fifth, far ahead of their only Western competitor in Brazil.****
* http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/18/news/economy/trump-maralago/** https://aflcio.org/2016/10/12/six-facts-donald-trumps-use-chinese-steel\*** http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-31/art-new-deal-how-trump-using-mexican-company-cemexs-concrete-build-wall-and-profit-b
*** http://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015b-8ab0-df96-a9db-dff115c30001
**** http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-31/art-new-deal-how-trump-using-mexican-company-cemexs-concrete-build-wall-and-profit-b
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/25/donald-trump-border-wall-mexican-construction-firms-workers-biggest-winners
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