But the resurgent left of the Democratic Party, inspired by the anti-WTO “Battle of Seattle” and led by folks like Elizabeth Warren, made free trade toxic to enough of the party that Hillary Clinton in 2016 felt she needed to come out against Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership which she herself had taken a lead in negotiating.
Trump ostensibly killed it, but it was already dead. Even an incredibly beneficial trade agreement—both economically and strategically—had no constituency of consequence on Capitol Hill. With Trump’s “help” maybe one will reemerge.
Obama had the right idea, Trump if he understood it (lol) would have used it to screw China instead of giving China a free pass by withdrawing from it.
Note that China <-> US relations soured under Obama, well before Trump came into the picture and most of it was a direct result of TPP and policies like it designed to contain China economically.
