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“Leave it to President Trump and Speaker Ryan to run interference on their own attempt at an economic message while further threatening already vulnerable House Republicans,” said DCCC Spokesman Tyler Law.
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Republicans Warn Trump a Trade War Risks Party’s Chances in November
Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-05/gop-warns-trump-a-trade-war-risks-party-s-chances-in-november
Republicans are warning President Donald Trump that a trade war with China would deal an economic blow to politically important areas of the country that will cost the party in November’s congressional elections.
The president’s proposed tariffs on a variety of imports are aimed at fulfilling a campaign promise to protect domestic industries slammed by globalization. But the impact of retaliation by China could drown out the GOP message that tax cuts are delivering prosperity, which the party is counting on to save their majorities in the House and Senate in what’s already a tough election year.
“If tariffs and a trade war erase the positive economic impact we have seen from tax reform, it is a big, big problem,” said Michael Steel, a managing director at Hamilton Place Strategies, who previously worked for former House Speaker John Boehner.
The latest salvo came Wednesday from China, which announced $50 billion worth of tariffs on American products including soybeans, pork and aircraft in retaliation for Trump’s plan to impose duties on 1,333 Chinese products. The biggest potential impact will be in rural areas that long have been part of the Republican base. Eight of the 10 biggest soybean-producing states went for Trump in the 2016 election and three of those will feature close Senate races in November.
[…] After Trump announced plans for tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, the European Union threatened to impose new duties on bourbon from Kentucky, the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and motorcycles made by Harley Davidson, which has its headquarters in Wisconsin, the home state of House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump gave the EU a temporary exclusion from the tariffs. China’s proposed retaliatory steps would hit hardest in farm states where Republicans dominate.
[…] If China follows through on it retaliatory tariffs, they’d be hitting just as campaigns are gearing up for the midterm elections that will decide control of Congress. Republicans already are confronting signs that Democrats have a solid chance to seize control of the majority in the House of Representatives, with Democratic voter disdain for Trump driving up turnout. At the same time, three of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats represent states that would be among the most affected by soybean tariffs — Missouri, Indiana and North Dakota
In an interview with Kentucky Today published on Wednesday, McConnell warned that 2018 will be a “challenging election year” for the GOP. “We know the wind is going to be in our face. We don’t know whether it’s going to be a Category 3, 4 or 5.”
Some Republicans are pleading with the president to ease off.
“It’s my hope that the Trump administration will reconsider these tariffs and pursue policies that enhance our competitiveness, rather than reduce our access to foreign markets,” Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst said in a statement.
Iowa’s other Republican senator, Chuck Grassley, said in a statement Wednesday that he warned Trump in February that tariffs on Chinese goods would cause China to retaliate against U.S. agriculture and “that’s exactly what happened.”
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