It's hard to believe someone as intelligent and cultured as you can fall for such a crude propaganda spin.

First, the number has been rectified to 800 jobs (the other 300 were always supposed to remain in the US - they did not need any "saving" ). 1,300 jobs are still are going to Mexico.

Then there's the fact Trump campaigned as this strong guy, a cunning businessman, the ruthless negotiator who would bring the US companies to heel or punish them with all his might for delocalizing jobs or for not bringing them back..

And now comes the first test of reality. His first "deal" (one he associated himself with, anyway), before even officially entering the White House, does the exact opposite. Gone are the big threats of reprisals and the chest thumping - not only UT won't get the reprisals promised by Trump for sending 1,300 jobs out of the country, but instead they get rewarded with Indiana tax payer money for the 800 jobs they agreed to keep in the US. We're used to that sort of rotten US companies in Canada (not saying US corps are rotten, but those in the manufacturing sector playing the blackmail game usually are). . "We want tax breaks, we want free electricity despite already having the cheapest on the continent - or we repatriate the jobs in the south of the US". Sometimes we learn a few years later they also closed their US plants and the jobs are now in Mexico. You make a 10-year deal with companies like that, 5-7 years later they come back wanting more money, or they shit in your hands along the way and delocalize anyway.

Pence lost this negotiation big time (just like our government did when they made that sort of deals with blackmailers) - and Indiana still loses 1,300 jobs when all is said and done. It looks suspiciously as if the transition team wanted so badly to avoid the seeing so close to X-Mas and Trump's investiture, and during his "thank you" tour the headline "Carrier in Indiana sends 2,100 jobs to Mexico on Mike Pence's watch." - Trump's ego probably just couldn't stomach anything that - so they rush negotiated any deal they could get to save face, from a position of weakness, when they could have told UT if they didn't keep the 2,100 jobs in the US Trump would make an example of them as soon as invested. But no.. they got barely enough from UT to spin it as this big victory and a turning tide (didn't fool much of anyone in the economic/business media that I could see...).

From a business stand-point, Trump looks like a loser for claiming credit for that deal after all his campaign posturing. Where are now all his threats of imposing tariffs on goods from companies that do what UT did, where are the threats to cut their federal contracts if they send 1,300 jobs away? Tariffs have turned into incentive tax breaks, apparently.

And then there's the message it sends to all other companies thinking to do the same: if you want tax breaks or other goodies, threaten to send jobs away and stand your ground. I bet the traditional Republicans cringed at that.

The worst is that if the Democrats had done that deal (and to be frank, it does look much more like a shitty, half-baked Democrat scheme than what you'd expect from Republicans!), Republicans would be the first to denounce it loudly, with good reasons.

Heck, If a few months ago Pence had made that deal but wasn't on Trump's ticket or a follower, guess who would have been the first to tell Indiana their governor was a moron, call him a "complete disaster" and tell his supporters in rallies that he wouldn't have caved in and then he would have threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs to United Technologies if they went forward with their intent to delocalized as soon as he was elected. And he would have said he'd have saved the 2,100 jobs in Pence's place or had he been elected already, just not 800 of them. Yeah, that guy.