Trump Joins ‘Made In America’ Chorus, Worry For India And China

Whoever wins the 2016 US Presidential elections, India and China need to worry.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump extended his substantial delegate lead by winning at least three Republican contests, including his knockout victory in Florida that pushed rival and Florida Senator Marco Rubio out of the race. Trump won Florida, the biggest prize on the map, including all 99 of its delegates.

On the Democratic side, Clinton further cemented her lead as she defeated Bernie Sanders in the hard-fought Ohio primary, as well as the North Carolina and Florida primaries, thereby completing her sweep of the Southern states.

Primary results today put Trump ahead of the rest of the Republican candidates in the race to the White House, but they were still not enough to assure him the party’s presidential nomination.

With wins in 18 states so far, Trump is far ahead of others in terms of delegate count, but not yet near the half way mark of 1,237 delegates, required for nomination.

However, Trump in his victory speech in Miami exuded confidence on winning the race and presidential polls in November.

Why is Trump so confident?

“There is great anger among the people. They want to see the country run properly,” he said as he gave his characteristic speech reiterating his stand on terrorism, trade and the wall along the US-Mexico border.

“We are going to make the best trade deal that you have ever seen. We need protection in the country. This country is going to start winning again,” Trump said, adding that the US is no longer winning in trade with countries like China, Germany, Japan, Vietnam and India.

In his speech, Trump said Apple would be manufacturing its iPhones in the US and not in China.

Indians studying in American educational institutions should not be kicked out as the country needs smart people like them, Donald Trump said as he sought to set the record straight about his immigration policies.

“Whether we like that or not, they pay etc, etc, but we educate a lot of people, very smart people. We need those people in the country,” Trump, 69, told Fox News in an interview when asked about his views on legal immigration.

“They cannot come into the country. You know, they go to Harvard, they are first in their class and they’re from India, they go back to India and they set up companies and they make a fortune and they employ lots of people and all of that,” he said.

“Many people want to stay in this country and then want to do that. I think somebody that goes through years of college in this country, we shouldn’t kick them out the day they graduate, which we do,” Trump said, clarifying his position on certain aspects of the H-1B visa.

Trump has been widely accused of having an “all or nothing” stance when it comes to immigrants. There are roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

He has been advocating the scrapping of the H-1B visa programme from the beginning of his campaign as he thinks it is “very unfair” for American workers and has been taking away their jobs.

IT professionals from India and major Indian IT companies are beneficiaries of the H-1B, a non-immigrant visa in the US which allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in speciality occupations.

Even as Hillary Clinton bounded onto a stage in West Palm Beach, Florida to give a victory speech on one of the best nights of her campaign, her adversaries on Tuesday were preparing their rebuttals.

Nearby in Mar-A-Lago, at his gold-leafed estate, Donald Trump railed against free trade deals the United States is party to, and many of which Clinton has supported. “We don’t win at trade. China, Japan, everybody—Mexico, Vietnam, India—anybody we do business with beats us,” he said.

Democrat Bernie Sanders also slammed “disastrous trade policies.”

“I say to corporate America, you want us to buy your products? Start manufacturing those products here in America, not in China,” Sanders said.

In fact, Trump has made trade the centerpiece of his campaign. During his Florida victory speech on Tuesday night, he launched invectives against feckless politicians in Washington who were unable to seal a good trade deal multiple times during his relatively brief comments. “It’s a total imbalance. We don’t make good deals anymore; as a country we don’t win anymore,” Trump said. “This country is going to start winning again. We don’t win anymore.”

The message of Trump and Sanders has resonated with white working-class voters, many of whom believe that poor trade deals engineered by a Washington establishment have cost them jobs, emptied factories and weakened their communities.

According to Time magazine, at a Trump event on Monday in Vienna, Ohio, Gary Scurti, a 59-year old United Autoworker member, said that he was supporting the billionaire for his promise to bring jobs back to the United States. “Trump is representing people who just want to earn a living. Hard work is fine. But we don’t have that work here,” said Scurti, who works at a nearby General Motors plant. “We have to protect our workers. Cut back on immigration until people here can get jobs.”

Sanders’ criticism against Clinton outlines the kinds of attacks Trump is likely to level if they meet in a general election. Sanders has repeatedly criticized Clinton for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the 1990s, saying in a debate in Michigan that she “supported virtually every one of the disastrous trade agreements written by corporate America.”