With anti-trade message, Trump targets 'Reagan Democrats

To hear Donald Trump tell it, blue-collar workers here are suffering as much as ever, their livelihoods endangered by the familiar combination of foreign competition and U.S. companies eager to hold down labor costs.

It's Trump's mantra. He repeats it again and again at campaign stops like the one he made here last week. A leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, Trump has made the health of the U.S. manufacturing a cornerstone of his insurgent campaign.

In doing so, Trump is targeting a big pool of potential voters among disaffected blue-collar workers, even if it means alienating the business community and conservative free-market advocates and brings accusations of demagoguery.

He vows to slap penalties on goods produced by U.S. companies outside the country, make it harder for China and others to export their goods, and tear up trade deals that he says hurt the U.S. industry. “I wonder how many Chevrolets are in the middle of Tokyo?’ he told the Anderson crowd to applause. “I would say none.”

And at the economy-themed Republican debate held Wednesday in Boulder, Colorado., Trump pledged to “bring jobs back” from China and Mexico.

There are signs that Trump’s strategy is working.

Polls show that the bulk of Trump’s support comes from men who lack a college degree and make less than $40,000 a year, the kind of workers who once formed the backbone of the U.S. manufacturing economy. They have helped propel Trump to the top of popularity rankings in South Carolina, a key early primary state, where he is outpacing rival Ben Carson.

“Some of the Republicans get so tied up with free trade,” said Lee Cole, a Republican attorney from nearby Williamston who attended Trump’s event. “Over the past 20 years, we’ve lost all of our manufacturing jobs,” Cole said of his hometown. “Anything that talks about getting some of that back I think really resonates well here.”

Government data shows that less than 30 percent of Americans have four-year college degrees and more than half of U.S. workers make less than $30,000 a year, so at stake is a vast pool of potential voters.

"He's tapped into an uneasiness, and he's done it cleverly," said Chip Felkel, a Republican strategist in Greenville, South Carolina, who is not aligned with Trump. "He's played it to the hilt."