How ‘Free Trade’ Gutted Us All
As the markets spin from President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy and the globalists clutch their pearls, Glenn Beck zooms out to see the bigger picture — the story of how elite-driven trade policies over the last 30 years gutted America’s middle class. Deals like NAFTA and China’s WTO entry sounded like progress to a lot of people, but they left devastation in their wake, killing jobs, draining small towns, and fueling an opioid epidemic in the heartland.
To understand Trump’s tariffs, you have to understand the real human cost behind tens of thousands of shuttered U.S. factories and the erosion of the American dream. No one knows the toll of the real human cost better than journalist Salena Zito, who wrote in the Washington Post, “What I learned about ‘America First’ in a Pennsylvania steel mill.” U.S. Steel workers who once opposed Japan’s investment now welcome it because “if this deal doesn’t happen, these jobs will be gone.”
She rejects the claim that Americans don’t want manufacturing jobs anymore and are scared of Trump’s tariffs. “There’s a very different feel in the middle of the country. ‘This might pinch now, but this is better not just for my kids, grandchildren — this is better for my country.’” Beck argues Trump’s tariffs aren’t just policy — they’re a rebellion against managed decline and a high-stakes gamble to restore American self-reliance.
