WEALTHY TRUMP ALLIES ATTACK HIS TARIFF PLANS
Deep pockets will put pressure on Republicans
Canada has powerful new allies in the fight against Donald Trump’s punishing tariffs: a pair of ultra-rich Republican financiers now mobilizing against the U.S. president.
The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, are worth US$52 billion apiece, according to Forbes. And they want trade to flow freely — something that makes them loathe tariffs.
The Koch brothers’ political network is launching what its executives are framing as a multi-year, multimillion-dollar campaign to knock down the billions of dollars in tariffs the Trump administration is moving to impose on imports from around the globe.
The push by the deeppocketed conservative powerhouse threatens, for one, to reorder the debate around the president’s trade agenda.
Republican lawmakers seeking re-election in a perilous environment have been largely reluctant to challenge the president. The Koch network is offering an incentive, demanding candidates fight for free trade to win its potentially make-orbreak backing.
“We’ll be supporting those folks who will be champions, not just passive supporters,” said James Davis, executive vice-president of Kochbacked Freedom Partners.
The network’s co-chair said the group will continue to expand despite the retirement of one of its founders. David Koch, 76, announced Tuesday he is stepping down for health reasons.
It’s unclear where exactly the Koch organizations will direct their firepower, but it seems possible they could intervene in Republican primaries, an unwelcome development for Republicans already in a tough political environment.
The campaign represents a threat to Trump’s presidency. Whether a mortal or serious one is yet to be seen, said Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business.
However, “This family has a lot of money, and they’re willing to spend it by supporting candidates who are going to support the progrowth, pro-free trade, pro reductions in tariffs agenda.”
“I really don’t care who is doing the opposing — I know this family has a bad brand in the United States — but you take your help where you find it,” Lee said.
“If they are going to be the instrument that’s going to organize opposition to Trump’s absurd ideas on trade well, so be it.”
The campaign, which is also backed by the Koch-sponsored Americans for Prosperity and the Libre Initiative, will include spending on “paid media, activist education and grassroots mobilization, lobbying and policy analysis,” the groups said in a release. Davis said that includes an aim to shape public opinion beyond Washington. “We recognize that there has been a rise in protectionist rhetoric and sentiment from both the Republican and Democratic parties, and we want to make sure we’re connecting Americans to the benefits of free trade over the long term,” he said.
The White House has been ramping up trade hostilities against traditional friends and foes alike in recent days. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said last week the U.S. would levy new duties on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, the European Union and Mexico, ending temporary exemptions. The Trump administration has also threatened to press ahead with at least US$50 billion in tariffs on Chinese products.
More than backing off of those moves, the Koch groups said in a Monday statement of principles that the U.S. should embrace new free trade deals by updating the North American Free Trade Agreement and moving to forge pacts with the United Kingdom, the EU, and Pacific Rim nations.
The move marks something of a break for the Koch network, which spent much of last year lending critical outside help to the White House-led drive for businessfocused tax cuts. But the group began signalling frustration this spring with what they view as a diminished Republican agenda.
The network still plans to spend between $300 million and $400 million on politics and policy during the 2018 election cycle. That’s up from $250 million in the 2016 elections.
The Koch network is hardly the only business group decrying Trump’s trade moves. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Retail Federation, among many others, have denounced the tariffs as growth-killers. But the complaints haven’t yet morphed into an effort by those groups to exact a political price from policy-makers who enable protectionism.
Lee said the Koch brothers are not shrinking violets. They are classical conservative capitalists, he said, not the kind who would ever line up politically with Justin Trudeau.
“The only way you can take on someone like a Trump is, like with like,” Lee said. “These are fellow capitalists who are turning on Mr. Trump.”