Trump will use Protectionism when it suits him, and threatening isolationisn when it suits him too but may not follow through on his threats.
The USA passed a law in 1920 called the Jones Act which is a huge piece of protectionalist legislation. It means that all cargo carried on ships between US ports must be carried on US ships with US seafarers. It protects tens of thousands of jobs and stops foreign ships and crews trading exclusively in their waters.

Unlike us with our descent into a Spiv economy where anything is permitted as long as it makes even more money ……our Merchant navy has shrunk to negligible proportions with even British crews replaced by cheap overseas labour to squeeze that extra bit of profit from the business…..and we now depend on cheap foreign ships to service our island…..our business leaders would sell their souls and yours for bigger profits.
We’ve lost our way thanks to greedy businesses and naive politicians.of ALL party’s.

Exactly, not just shipping, an island nation that used to make almost anything and everything now almost totally dependent on importing almost anything and everything. We should have protected our merchant navy, our shipbuilding, steel making, textile, industries etc thereby protecting our economy, our heritage, and communities instead of making it all about short term cash flow.

Cannot disagree but for an economy that relies upon exports too, you can't simply tariff your way out of a trade deficit. Everybody is knee deep in a world economy and is accustomed to the benefits.

Just a little aside, I was stocking up on paint brushes (not decorators brushes) and always use established brands which are a bit more expensive, but are made in this country and you know what quality you can expect….bought five packs a fortnight ago, got round to opening them up to box them and found this brand that I use has decided to have them made in China now…fuck em….all that says to me is cheaper for them, bigger profits for them and someone who worked for them and has a skill ends up pushing supermarket trolleys round the car park because their job was sold down the river.

It's not just tariffs that protect their own industries and jobs, subsidies work as well.
Successive UK government's have refused to offer subsidies to our own established industries costing many jobs. Now is it better to pay subsidies and keep people in work and paying taxes or to simply pay them benefits after the jobs have gone, local economy is smashed, and communities destroyed? That's how protectionism can be a good thing, and is still extensively practised in the worlds biggest economy today.
On that theme why do we subsidise and incentivise the likes of Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Hitachi, but not Steelworks?

How can the U.K. compete with any Asian country when the minimum wage here is over £11 a hour and tbh with the cost living going through the roof it needs to be. Sweat shops in Asia don’t pay that in a day, should the U.K. impose tariffs like Trump does on all goods imported from Asia etc. I think the shoppers in Primark etc would be up in arms as that’s where their clothing is made in Asia.

Can't protect every industry but the only o es that spring to mind that UK government's have protected are the banks.
Germany is currently subsidising shipbuilding to keep the industry going, protects jobs, communities, heritage.

We didn't even protect the very basic necessities to live, the Utilities, that's worked out well hasn't it with declining services and massive cost increases to serve shareholders rather than serving the UK citizens.

thats more or less it. people would pay more to buy british and buy local from the butchers if they actually could afford to do so. big question to ask was what came first in this country. the cost of living rises that workers needed a big pay rise or overgreedy workers causing this and not prepared to do a fair days work for the pay they were getting.

Simple, put tariffs on their prices which are virtually slave labour produced goods anyway. Otherwise this will go on forever.
Trouble is those in charge of all Party’s think everyone has a degree, works on a screen 9 till 5 Mon to Fri and look down on anyone who doesn’t as plebs.

Agreed put tariffs on goods imported, people would be crying as the majority of electorate goods are made in China, mobile phones/tablets and clothes in Asia.
Then what the U.K. can’t even compete then because we don’t have plants that manufacture mobile phones/tablets or factories that make clothes.
Trump put tariffs on Chinese imports in place during his last tenure
but all that did was increase inflation.

The EU countries weren’t allowed to subsidise industry probably still is but they did apart from the U.K., we couldn’t compete with result shipbuilding, steel industry, mines etc suffered which suited Thatcher as it give her a reason to shut the majority down.

Inflation v Forced labour and modern day slavery....."A good heart these days is hard to find"?

Include supermarkets who make massive profits from everyday essentials, very rare to find local high street businesses nowadays. Their idea of selling milk as a loss leader more or done away with doorstop delivery for milk as well.

the problem is that trade is a world wide thing and this country just isn,t big enough now to go down the line of tariffs for imported goods like the usa could. in our throw away society would the general public at large be prepared for that or actually want it to happen. must admit i purchase an article thats been recommended by someone else and only look at the country of origin through being nosy once it arrives and really do not give a toss.

No good the politicians whining about modern day slavery and the happily buying the products of it without blushing.

It’s going to be interesting seeing how it all pans out. Many of his actions are the kind of measures suggested by the pound shop Trump over here (slashing the public sector/deportations/lowering taxes/etc.) Perhaps we’ll see some results of that before the next election. Perhaps it’ll work perhaps it will be globally disastrous. It’ll certainly have a bearing on who we elect next.

Incidentally, I read recently that the former president achieved high numbers of deportations in his first term - I’m talking about Obama by the way! He deported over four times more people than Trump managed in his term basically because he had strategy and isn’t a total fraud of a man.

You mean the Obama who initiated the ‘Arab Spring’ which is the root of all our problems today…that Obama…?
Turns out the Middle East wasn’t exactly keen on Obama imposing his version of ‘democracy ’ on them.

By the way, the man who actually removed all those illegals for Obama has just been re-appointed by Trump to carry on the work.

Nail on the head.

Couple of points - mentioning the Middle East and imposing democracy is whataboutism - I was making a totally different point.

Also, if as you say Obama's man has been brought back, why wasn't he retained by Trump first time round? Point still remains, Trump's rhetoric on deportation remains just that, his track record doesn't back up his previous words. Given he's said he'll remove 'millions' (direct quote from him) this time round, that's what he'll be measured on. I haven't got a problem with setting high targets and missing as long as meaningful progress is made, so let's see if he manages half a million this time.

Maybe, if we'd actually been talking about a completely different topic!

Not so…YOU were talking up Obama …his Arab spring was a staggering disaster that far outweighs anything praiseworthy he did…..and that’s lead us to the state of the Middle East today.
Maybe the people in the Middle East didn’t want shopping malls and Disneyland and were happy with their own culture. One man’s paradise is another man’s nightmare.

Whataboutery more like…but not by me…I ‘m judging the man by his full record, not the cosy highlights….. he might fool a lot of people but he ain’t fooling me.
As for Trump employing his man…he wasn’t his man he was in post at the time…but if Trump has used him it shows he’s open minded enough to use the best man for the job….hardly a criticism.

yes, and gives him a better chance of that policy to work with the bigger part of the country and not just his supporters.