Where Trump was right is that a lot of workers have been made obsolete and unemployable because of changes in the structure of the economy. Like most of the workers involved, he blames offshoring and regulations.

That worked for him because, unlike the Democrats, he recognized that there is a problem. The Dems can scarcely contain their contempt for working people.

Trump voters I’ve spoken with are well aware that he can’t do what he promised, but they feel that at least he’s on their side.

Self driving locomotives, self-driving trucks, self driving taxis, increasingly automated factories, increasingly promise a future of ineradicable structural unemployment. Increasing credentialism (college degrees) won’t help. There are only so many of those jobs, too.

I suppose Trump is hoping that more oil drilling will create more industry jobs. He could be right — in the short run.

But sooner or later we have to deal with the fact that, while workers are getting more and more productive, industry needs fewer and fewer of them.