Donald Trump profits in private from the companies he trashes in public

By Charles Stein and Sahil Kapur
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has been tough on American companies that have moved jobs to other countries. That hasn’t stopped the presumptive Republican presidential nominee from investing in them.
Trump has denounced units of United Technologies Corp, Ford Motor Co and Mondelez International Inc on the campaign trail — and has received income of as much as $75,000 from bonds issued by all three since January 2015, according to his latest financial disclosure form released Tuesday. He also has invested in Apple Inc’s stock and bonds even though in February he called for a boycott of the company for refusing to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation unlock an iPhone used by a terrorist in San Bernardino, California.

Trump’s attacks on US companies reflect a key element of his strategy for winning the White House: to compete against a Democratic rival in Rust Belt states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where working-class voters have been harmed by international trade deals, he’s promising to stop the movement of manufacturing jobs overseas.

"Our companies are leaving our country rapidly, rapidly," Trump said on March 15. "Frankly I’m disgusted with it."

Carrier, a unit of Connecticut-based United Technologies, said it was closing an Indiana factory and relocating the work to Mexico, eliminating 1,400 jobs. Trump, at a rally in Indiana, said he would put a 35 per cent tariff on air conditioners Carrier ships to the US from Mexico, saying the move would force the company to reconsider its actions.

Trump on April 5 called Ford’s decision to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico "an absolute disgrace," the Detroit News reported. "These ridiculous, jobcrushing transactions will not happen when I am president."

Snack maker Mondelez last summer announced that it would cut 600 jobs at a Nabisco plant in Chicago as production is shifted to newer facilities in Mexico.