CNBC’s Jim Cramer: Trump is right on trade

CNBC’s Jim Cramer is siding with Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on global trade. 

Cramer said the United States has been bested on every trade deal going back to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was completed more than 20 years ago during President Clinton’s first term.

{mosads}He argues that Trump is finally shedding light on how bad the United States has been at negotiating trade agreements over the years.

“Look, we lose on every trade deal,” Cramer said Thursday on “Squawk Box.” 

“I always ask all these people from either party: Name me one trade deal we have had a surplus on in the last decade. They can’t name any,” he said.

“I always find it amusing to think people don’t seem to mind that we lose in these deals because we’re able to export a lot of premium products that are not made necessarily by people in our workforce.”

Cramer said Trump was the only person to discuss the trade deficit before hitting the campaign trail. 

During his show “Mad Money” on Wednesday, Cramer said the U.S. government has been “horrendous” at negotiating deals and that U.S. workers have been “bamboozled” for years into thinking that if the trade deals were good for large multinational corporations then they must benefit them and the broader economy, too. 

Cramer said “there are very few people I have met, and I’ve seen it on both sides, that know how to negotiate.

“Say what you want about Trump, I agree with him totally about these trade deals,” he said during Wednesday’s show.

Trump has said repeatedly he would scrap and renegotiate all U.S. trade deals if he wins the White House.

He said that Trump has been talking about trade for years and his stance shouldn’t surprise anybody.

“People should understand this has been his view from day one,” Cramer said. “It has always been pro-worker,” he said.

“Have people not been paying attention to what this man has been saying about the trade deals? He’s been right the whole way.”

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have each said they oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal negotiated by the Obama administration that Congress could consider later this year.

Sanders has taken a sharper stance, criticizing Clinton for her support of NAFTA and her advocacy of TPP while she was secretary of State.