His economic success is very evident for almost anyone to look at the statistics.  The economy that Reagan inherited was in worse shape than the one that Obama had inherited as well.  This country grew significantly, economically speaking during the Reagan presidency and Bush 1 and Clinton were benefactors of it.  GDP growth from the tenure of the Reagan presidency was around 32% net growth.  Median household income increased close to 10% during Reagan's presidency (Has been absolutely stagnant during Obama presidency for example).

It doesn't pale in comparison.  This country needs to regain it's economic power in order to remain the most relevant world power.  Illegal immigration is a big problem because of the ever increasing social safety net and taking jobs from legal Americans.  Last numbers that I have read -- Have over 300,000 illegal immigrants ending up in this country per year and the net effect of that is exponential.  Especially -- when you factor in the fact that this country has almost enitrely lost their manufacturing sector to Chin and Mexico.   So now,  all lower paying jobs are going to illegal immigrants and there's an able bodied segment of America that can't get jobs. 

Trump's primary focus is to ensure America becomes an economic powerhouse.  Illegal immigration is  tied into that primary focus because of how it impacts the countries ability to grow.

The nerve wanting to be president even though she failed her DC bar exam. Argh!!! *shakes fist*

We all know that all brilliant minds and worthy leaders passed all their exams with flying colours. Why are we even talking about a person who didn't pass her exam? smh

America will never have that type of growth because in the 80s they were pumping tons of money into the military due to the Cold War and they didn't have to worry about China which was closed off to the rest of the world mostly at that time. 

If I'm running a huge corporation, I'm going to make my products in China, simply because their work force will work at a rate American workers would never go for. 

That's just the bottom line. Even Trump deep down knows that. It's just a good PR issue that plays well on the campaign trail.  A simple tax cut for corporations isn't going to do the trick either, Chinese workers work for like 1/4 the lowest rate a US worker would and at hours no US worker would dream of working without things like vacation pay or any of that. 

And even in China, that type of labor is starting to be phased out by robotics, which is even cheaper still. 

Mine sure is. Thankfully there are intelligent people like you who know how the world works, here to enlighten us. We are not worthy.

You're missing the point, that the United States has been a huge contributor to the rebuilding process underway in China.  Between NAFTA and China,  we've essentially watched businesses moving their facilities over the border, manufacturing products and bringing them back into the US for virtually nothing.  

Today -  The business pays cheaper wages out to the foreign employees,  production remains the same and their sales remain the same.  Trump's big mention has been to start increasing incentives(and punishments)  for the companies that choose to operate in this manner.    The net goal of this -- is to increase in investment in Amerca to maintain the profitability that they're seeking.   Reducing one of the highest corporate taxes in the world is a good start to multiple steps that should be taken to create incentives to invest in America.

If you're running a big corporation,  you need to have reasons that are prohibitive/not cost effective to move your production to China. 

What Trump wisely realizes is that not everyone is meant for a college education.  Not everyone is destined for greatness.  For people in this category,  they need jobs.  Manufacturing is a HUGE industry that the United States has completely lost.  That process started with the signing of NAFTA and has continued  to increase globally. The USA has to bring back this type of work and you'll see a drastic increase in employment.   

 The United States simply doesn't "make" much of anything anymore.   We're consumers, not producers.   We're trying to pump kids today out with college educations and their piece of paper and they still have no quantifiable skills and people wonder why they can't get hired, after all they have this piece of paper.  

You need a blend of both,  you can't run a country with a bunch of consumers.  Otherwise you start to see what we have for several years which is an increasing wealth disparity between the lower and upper classes.  The upper class will continue to be wealthy,  they will operate in a way that benefits their bottom line.  The people who suffer when you export business as we have is only the lower class.   NAFTA was essentially signed into law in 1994 --  and since the late 90s, we've watched the wealth disparity between the Lower and Upper class dramatically increase.

That's a no brainer...if I build a McDonalds (using my own money) I have to hire people to work on it, thus I generated 20 jobs. That's what business men do; the more money you have, the more jobs you can potentially generate.

And in the case of basically all business men, they do it to generate more money, not because of the kindness of their hearts. Trump is no different.

But my original point is simple, managing a country is way way waaaaaaaaaaaaaay different and complicated than managing a company, especially a power house such as the United States. Nothing that Trump has said or done gives me confidence that he can run a country. 

Trump will use the same taxpayer money all Presidents prior to him have used, and he will have to use that money in education, health, military, building a wall, which are things he hasn't dealth with or at least not on this scale; not talking about raw numbers only, but also the implications it will have on foreign economy, international relationships, and who knows maybe even war.

Why should the US make anything anymore? 

If I'm running a billion dollar corporation my allegiances are not to any country, they are to my shareholders who are putting pressure on me to deliver maximum profit every year. 

The fact of the matter is modern manufacturing in 2015 (since it's not 1970 or even 1980 anymore) is dramatically different. 

Are American workers willing to work at the salary that millions upon millions of Chinese workers are willing to work at? Are they willing to work 12, something 14-16 hours a day? Are they willing to work without medical, dental, vacation, etc. like Chinese workers do?

If the answer is no, then ultimately most corporations are going to opt to make things in China. No trade agreement is going to really deter that at a mass level. 

Trump knows full well that a trade war with China doesn't help anyone. The Chinese economy has been a huge boon to American investors and they provide us with a ton of cheap goods and buy a ton of our bonds on top of that. If anything it's probably good for global stability that nowadays, superpowers like China, Russia, US, etc. can only push each other so much, because they're so economically dependant on each other that doing something stupid (like going to war with each other) is pretty much a non-starter. Sure they'll talk shit to each other now and again, but no one's actually going to do something ala World War II. 

So there are pros and cons to everything. Yes the US "made more shit" in say the 1960s/70s/80s, but the population also lived under the threat that a nuclear attack from Russia could end their lives at any moment. 

Beyond that manufacturing is set for another revolution in the next 10-30 years ... robotic automation. A lot of jobs can simply be replaced by robots. Trump knows all this, he just plays this issue up because it riles up a portion of his base.