CNBC's Jim Cramer cautions voters that you shouldn’t write off everything Donald Trump says as controversial sound bites on the nightly news.
"Trump has real things to say. They may not be what you think, and they often seem like wishful thinking. But you need to know his views, not just how he is doing coming around the far turn," the "Mad Money" host said.
Cramer believes the U.S. “has been crushed on almost every single trade deal it has done, going all the way back to Nafta,”
CNBC reported. “And every time Cramer has asked an official of either party to name a deal that was signed in the last decade that has given the U.S. a trade surplus, no one could come up with an answer,” the report said.
Donald Trump has said other countries are unfairly taking advantage of the U.S. through a combination of high taxes on American products and devaluing their own currencies. The billionaire has urged extreme tariffs — 35 percent on Ford vehicles from Mexico and 45 percent on Chinese goods — to help the U.S. regain the upper hand.
Trump has complained that China, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam and India are "ripping us off" by devaluing their currencies and keeping out some U.S. exports.
Trump has said he would slap 35 percent tariffs on air conditioners made by United Technologies Corp.'s Carrier in Mexico after the company decided to move production there from Indiana, and on Ford Motor Corp. vehicles made in Mexico that are sold in the United States.
Party leaders are appalled at the real estate developer and reality TV personality's incendiary rhetoric and believe his policy positions are out of step with core Republican sentiment, such as his vow to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, temporarily ban Muslims from the United States and build a wall along the border with Mexico.
“Say what you will about Trump, I agree with him about these trade deals," Cramer said.
Foreign diplomats have expressed alarm to U.S. government officials about what they say are inflammatory and insulting public statements by Trump, senior U.S. officials have told
Reuters.
Officials from Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia have complained in recent private conversations, mostly about the xenophobic nature of Trump's statements, said three U.S. officials, who all declined to be identified. "As the (Trump) rhetoric has continued, and in some cases amped up, so, too, have concerns by certain leaders around the world," one of the officials told Reuters.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).