Alfonse D'Amato

The president-elect is fighting to save jobs

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Donald Trump has kept his promise to fight to save the jobs of the working middle class. Almost immediately after the election, he reached out to Gregory Hayes, chief executive of the Carrier Corporation’s parent company, United Technologies, after hearing that the company was planning on moving roughly 1,000 jobs from Carrier’s Indianapolis factory to Mexico.

Trump and Hayes negotiated a deal that would keep the jobs in Indianapolis. Carrier would receive $7 million in tax incentives from the state of Indiana, in exchange for a $16 million investment in the facility over the next two years.

Liberals have criticized the deal by pointing out that it only involves 1,000 jobs. Wake up, lefties! Every job saved means another secure family.

Trump isn’t even in office yet, but he has already begun to demonstrate to the American public that his campaign wasn’t just political rhetoric. Few can argue with his attitude about keeping jobs in America, and his initiative. During the Carrier announcement press conference, Trump pledged again to put “America first,” and mentioned that he has begun reaching out to Democrats in an attempt to start the process of ending gridlock and working together to make sure that more deals like this one get done.

During a visit to the Carrier factory after the deal was announced, Trump said, “We’re going to have a lot of phone calls made to companies when they say they’re leaving this country, because they’re not going to leave this country.”

In addition to Carrier, Trump has been negotiating with Ford, which was planning to move the production of the Lincoln MKS out of its Louisville, Ky., assembly plant to Mexico. Trump labeled the move an absolute disgrace, and managed to persuade the automaker to reconsider the move. Look for Trump to continue the pressure on other American automakers by ending trade pacts and utilizing anti-dumping provisions to prevent them from moving jobs to Mexico.

Trump has also made headlines for shocking the mainstream media with his completely outside-the-box presidential appointments. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser, businessman Wilber Ross as commerce secretary and legendary Marine Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis as defense secretary.

I mentioned last week that one choice that should be saluted and heralded is the nomination of Betsy DeVos as education secretary. During the campaign, Trump reached out to minority communities and spoke to them about the disappointing performance of inner-city schools. Trump took a “what do you have to lose” approach to these communities, and cited the fact that in many cities, the education system is disastrous and the real victims are minority children who were born there.

Trump called the failed educational system a disgrace, and promised that if he were elected he would work to change things. Here on Long Island, we’re lucky that our public-school system provides a quality education, but that isn’t the case around the country, and a perfect example is the New York City school system.

I believe one of the main reasons why our educational system continues to get worse each year in many areas is the powerful teachers’ unions, which care only about protecting teachers and keeping the union dues coming in so that union officials can continue living the high life while kids in the inner city struggle.

DeVos chaired the American Federation for Children, an organization dedicated to helping parents choose the best schools for their kids. In the past, she’s been quoted as saying, “What we are trying to do is tear down the mindset that assigns students to a school based solely on the ZIP code of their parents’ home.”

Throughout her career, DeVos has fought the teachers’ unions head-on so that parents could have a say in where their children receive an education. Under her leadership, charter schools and the school voucher program will flourish, providing more options for low-income families, which they have deserved for a long time.

These are exciting times in politics. The people elected Donald Trump because they were sick of “politics as usual.” Through his actions and several key appointments, the president-elect is illustrating that the American political system is going to change, and he is committed to putting the people of America first and making our country stronger and greater.

Al D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column? ADAmato@liherald.com.