Minority-vote difficulty seen for Trump

Donald Trump's chances of attracting minority voters in his bid for the White House aren't very good, partly because of his strong anti-immigrant stance, according to John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.

"That's mostly focused on Hispanic immigrants, but the message with the immigrants here will be a very, very negative one," Green said in an interview on Monday.

He said Trump's trade policy and national security policies are likely to be unpopular among most immigrants and the countries where they come from. "I don't think that he will do very well among Chinese Japanese and Asian Americans or among other immigrant groups," Green said.

Green is co-author of The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy; Religion and the Culture Wars: Dispatches From the Front, and The Diminishing Divide: Religion's Changing Role in American Politics. He is also a senior fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Trump has charged that China is stealing jobs from the US and he has threatened to put a 45 percent tax on imports from China if he is elected president.

Green said there are many businesses in Ohio that do business with China and they would like to do more.

"There are lots of Chinese goods imported to the US and make the US a richer and happier place. Those individuals are very disturbed with Trump's policies toward China because of his protectionist tendencies," he said,

Green acknowledged that there are people in Ohio who have not benefited from foreign trade and "who believe, right or wrong, their jobs have gone overseas. Reality is more complicated than that. But Trump's message appeals to them."

"What most economists will tell you is that the long-term success of any national economy depends upon free trade. But that's the long run. The short run is that you have winners and losers. And Trump is clearly appealing to the losers and the trade arrangement we have today," he said.

The Bliss Institute is a bipartisan research and teaching institute dedicated to increasing understanding of the political process with a special focus on political parties, grassroots activity and ethical behavior. It was established in 1986, and named after Ray C. Bliss, a prominent Republican Party member in the 1960s and a graduate of the University of Akron, where he served on the board of trustees and was chair of the board at the time of his death in 1981.

wanglinyan@chinadailyusa.com