Polls find GOP shifting into anti-trade party

DENVER — Donald Trump's break with conservative economic thinking on free trade comes as Republicans are increasingly relying on older, struggling white voters who are the most skeptical of trade deals and have lost out during an age of globalization.

Polls on the complex issue of trade are mixed, but many show that Republican voters, more than Democratic ones, oppose trade deals. A Pew Research Center survey in March found that 52 percent of Republicans viewed trade deals as bad, while only 30 percent of Democrats did. A Bloomberg poll found that 53 percent of Republicans said the North American Free Trade Agreement was bad, while only 36 percent of Democrats did.

Part of the divide may be Republican distrust of President Barack Obama, who has made cementing an Asian trade agreement a top priority. But the shift against free trade may also reflect a political realignment that Trump's candidacy, which draws its greatest support from whites who have not graduated from college, is accelerating.

On Tuesday, Trump gave a speech calling for the rejection of the Trans Pacific Partnership, the pending Asia-Pacific trade deal, and the reversal of NAFTA, the U.S-Mexico-Canada agreement signed by President George H. W. Bush and implemented by President Bill Clinton.

"The Democratic coalition is doing pretty well in the American economy and older white voters with lesser skills have an acute set of economic problems," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the New Democratic Network in Washington.

He noted that young people and minorities — the cornerstone of the Democratic coalition —are more supportive of trade and other facets of globalization, such as immigration.

But Democrats are also divided. During the primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders bashed the TPP, despite Obama's support for it. Hillary Clinton — who as secretary of state helped negotiate the deal — has turned against it. After Trump's speech Tuesday, Clinton's campaign sent out a press release noting that she has also called for tough trade measures.

One indication of how the politics of trade has been upended came Thursday, when Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto — all members of center-left parties — countered Trump and forcefully defended the value of free trade during a joint news conference.