Speak out against tariffs

Trump attacks 'weak politicians' who speak out against tariffs

By LOUIS NELSON

President Donald Trump on Wednesday called lawmakers upset over his tariff-heavy trade policies “weak” and suggested that those complainers should “be cool” because such negative talk is dragging down ongoing negotiations.

“Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking?” Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning. “Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!”

“When you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation, it will only take longer to make a deal, and the deal will never be as good as it could have been with unity,” he continued in a second post. “Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!”

Many Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have spoken out against tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

Trump has turned up the intensity in recent weeks on his campaign to rebalance U.S. trade relationships around the globe onto more favorable terms for his country, imposing tariffs and the threat of tariffs as leverage. Controversially, Trump has imposed tariffs on longtime partners and allies like Mexico, Canada, South Korea and the European Union.

But Trump has paid special attention to China, a nation he has accused of intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers, imposing billions in tariffs and threatening to impose more, all the way up to the roughly $500 billion worth of imports China sends to the U.S. each year. China has responded with tariffs of its own, including some that specifically target the U.S. agriculture industry, where support for Trump is strong and which depends heavily on exports to China for a large portion of its business.

The president has promised that his trade strategy will ultimately benefit farmers and on Tuesday announced that the U.S. would offer $12 billion in one-time aid to farmers to mitigate their expected losses. That plan was met with harsh criticism from GOP lawmakers, including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who called the president’s proposal “more and more like a Soviet type of economy.”

“Commissars deciding who’s going to be granted waivers, commissars in the administration figuring out how they’re going to sprinkle around benefits,” he said.

Johnson was far from alone in his criticism. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) called the aid package amounted to “gold crutches” for farmers and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said the president’s tariffs amounted to “a policy that requires farmers to go on welfare."

Trump, though, wrote online Wednesday that China was purposely targeting U.S. farmers in an effort to gain leverage over Trump. The president pledged that Beijing would be unsuccessful in its efforts to pressure him out of efforts to balance trade ties between the U.S. and China.

“China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S.,” the president wrote online. “They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now! China made $517 Billion on us last year.”