NEW YORK — His trade war already raging worldwide, President Donald Trump on Friday brandished his aggressive actions as a political weapon at home, too, casting himself as a fighter for American w…
NEW YORK — His trade war already raging worldwide, President Donald Trump on Friday brandished his aggressive actions as a political weapon at home, too, casting himself as a fighter for American workers and scorning his chief Democratic rivals as weak.
Trump’s actions have already caused economic harm to some of the regions that backed him in 2016. Yet the Republican president is showing little regard for the political risks — or his party’s traditional embrace of free trade — as he stakes out his position on an issue that could define the 2020 presidential contest as much as any other.
Trump slapped at former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential contender, in a social media post while defending his latest levying of higher tariffs on Chinese goods, which had taken effect at midnight.
Hours later, U. S. and Chinese negotiators broke off talks they were holding under the increasing pressure of the new tariffs, mostly ultimately paid by U. S. consumers and companies, on $200 billion in Chinese goods and Beijing’s promise to retaliate.
The administration already had applied billions of dollars in trade taxes to goods from China, the world’s second largest economy. And the administration has also imposed steel tariffs against allies including Canada, Mexico and the European Union and threatened additional tariffs.
“This is not the Obama Administration, or the Administration of Sleepy Joe, who let China get away with ‘murder!’” Trump tweeted, using his dismissive nickname for Biden.
A spokesman for Biden, who is in the midst of his inaugural nationwide tour as a formal 2020 presidential candidate, condemned Trump’s approach.
“We’re not going to get a good deal with China if we let Trump keep negotiating by impulse, tweet, and campaign rally one-liner,” said the spokesman, Andrew Bates.
Trump’s continued embrace of protectionist trade policies could energize his supporters from both parties across the Midwest, where many blame trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, for the decline of America’s manufacturing sector. At the same time, And Trump’s prominent poking will almost certainly exacerbate divisions among Democrats, who are in the early days of their own intra-party fight to pick someone to take him on next year.
In an interview, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Democratic weakness on trade was part of the reason Trump won in 2016 — because his Democratic opponent wasn’t strong enough in condemning deals perceived by some as helping other countries more than the U.
