It was supposed to be Trump s one, big win. Now it s completely falling apart.The much-publicized deal to save American manufacturing jobs at the Carrier plant in Indianapolis is looking less like a feather in Trump s cap and more like a black eye. The latest details out of the plant paint a grim picture for the employees who were told just months ago that they had been saved by Trump. According to a report by CNBC:More than 600 employees at a Carrier plant in Indianapolis are bracing for layoffs beginning next month, despite being told by President Trump that nearly all the jobs at the plant had been saved. The deal, announced with great fanfare before Trump took office, was billed not only as a heroic move to keep jobs from going to Mexico but also as a seismic shift in the economic development landscape.Nearly seven months later the deal has not worked out quite as originally advertised, and the landscape has barely budged. The jobs are still leaving,  said Robert James, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999.  Nothing has stopped. Shortly after winning the election and eager for a publicity win, Trump had obsessed over the Carrier plant. In an effort to secure the publicity stunt, he ordered then-Indiana governor Mike Pence to hand over $7 million in tax breaks to the owners of Carrier in an effort to bribe the executives into keeping some jobs in the area. The Carrier executives gladly took the money (which came out of Indiana s taxes) then shipped the jobs to Mexico anyways.In perhaps the sickest twist in this sordid story, Carrier had secured the $7 million by promising to  invest  an additional $16 million in the factory. Trump never read the fine print. Carrier now says it will use that promised money to develop more  automation  which will enable the company to cut even more jobs down the road.That s one hell of a bad deal from Donald  the dealmaker  Trump.Unfortunately for Americans looking to understand how Trump might run the country and for the workers at Carrier, much of the mainstream media hailed the Carrier deal as an unequivocal success for Trump. The New York Times, for instance, praised Trump for the bribe, parroting his campaign rhetoric, writing that this deal proved Trump was  a different kind of Republican, willing to take on big business. It s doubtful that the same media outlets will bother to retract their original praise or issue a follow-up documenting the ways in which the deal has fallen apart. Everyone has moved on. Many Americans might even still falsely believe Trump saved the Carrier jobs.Meanwhile an estimated 600 employees at Carrier will now be jobless. Plants will still open up in Mexico, right on schedule. And the only real winners were the owners of Carrier and Trump. But was there ever really any chance that it wouldn t turn out this way?Featured image via Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images