the most disturbing and inhumane aspect of Trump's inept campaign is his hollow promise to bring back manufacturing jobs to rust belt states that had been made obsolete by automation and more efficient methods of production before NAFTA was even enacted. He's given his followers in those areas a false hope of regaining jobs that are never coming back.

The jobs, or equivalent jobs, could indeed come back. Most of them are still being done, but relocated to places where wage costs are dramatically lower. Reestablishing manufacturing industry would need some way of addressing that. High tariffs has been the historic way, but that backfires badly, hefty wage subsidies is another - but that means high taxes, while of course Trump promises tax cuts, especially for the rich of course.