This Rattner piece on autos has a lot of useful information. But this assertion is wrong 1/ nytimes.com/2018/11/28/opi… 
A rising trade deficit did contribute to declining manufacturing employment from around 1997 to 2006. But even in that stretch it accounted for less than half of total manufacturing decline; and over the longer run much less 2/
The underlying driver of the shift away from manufacturing is that we're spending a rising share of income on services, partly because productivity growth in manufacturing makes goods cheaper, partly because we're spending more on health 3/
We shouldn't buy into the trade story -- that gives Trump too much credit 4/
