Trump goes to war with corporate America

The president’s widening trade war is pushing longtime GOP allies to the front lines of a fight against the Trump administration

By Ben White & Megan Casella @ Politico.com, July 3

[....] “With every successive firecracker that Trump sets off, we see corporate leaders and groups emboldened and ready to go on the public stage to take him on,” said Nancy Koehn, a business historian at Harvard. “This isn’t the natural order of history that large business groups oppose a Republican president. Trump has a from-the-gut sense that his base will be with him come hell or high water. But it’s a very big bet with no certainty of success.”

The latest salvo in Trump vs. Big Business came Monday when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, long a stalwart backer of Republican economic policies, broke sharply with the president. “The administration is threatening to undermine the economic progress it worked so hard to achieve,” Chamber President Tom Donohue said in announcing a campaign to oppose Trump’s tariffs. “We should seek free and fair trade, but this is just not the way to do it.”

The Chamber’s effort came after GM on Friday said Trump’s proposal for 25 percent tariffs on imported cars “could lead to a smaller GM, a reduced presence at home and risk less — not more — U.S. jobs.”

It also followed motorcycle-maker Harley-Davidson announcing [.....]

‘I’d like to kill ‘em’: GOP takes on Trump tariffs by Burgess Everett @ Politico.com, July 3

Republican lawmakers are losing their patience with the president’s trade war, saying it’s hurting their states and the party’s chances in the midterms.

Republican senators are at their breaking point with Donald Trump’s protectionist trade blitz.

Not a party meeting goes by these days at which multiple Republicans don’t vent that the president isn’t listening to them — and plot how to fight back.

“I’d like to kill ’em,” groused Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a close Trump ally, referring to the administration’s expanding list of tariffs.

The mounting frustration with the Republican president is a warning sign for the party amid what’s been a surprisingly favorable stretch. Trump appears, at least for now, to have weathered the internal GOP backlash against his family separation policy. He has a new Supreme Court vacancy to fill, and he ended last week celebrating the “economic miracle” he said his tax cuts created.

But Republican senators say they can’t get the president to comprehend that his tariffs offensive could upend all of that progress in short order. Commodity prices in the heartland are sagging, U.S. allies are retaliating with tariffs of their own — and GOP leaders are fretting that the booming economy is about to go into a pre-midterms nosedive [....]