GOP leaders warn Trump on tariff plan
President unmoved by trade war fears
WASHINGTON — Hoping to blunt a move Republicans fear could spark a global trade war and backfire politically, party leaders in the House and Senate implored President Donald Trump on Tuesday to narrow or repudiate his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
The president, at an afternoon news conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, appeared unmoved, defending his intent to level tariffs and taking particular aim at the European Union, a group comprised largely of diplomatic allies.
“The United States has been taken advantage of by other countries, both friendly and not so friendly for many, many decades, and we have a trade deficit of $800 billion a year,” Trump said, “And that’s not going to happen with me … I don’t blame the countries. I blame our leadership for allowing it to happen.”
Trump’s words came within hours of criticism from the Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, and appeared aimed at them.
The rare public disagreement after a year in which they have been largely deferential to Trump came amid widespread Republican concern that Trump’s desired tariffs — 25 percent on foreign steel and 10 percent on foreign aluminum — would prompt retaliation that could raise consumer prices, slow the economy and deprive GOP candidates of their main argument in November.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has repeatedly talked to the president since his surprise declaration last week, said that Republican senators are worried “about interfering with what appears to be an economy taking off.”
“We are urging caution that this (not) develop into something much more dramatic that could send the economy in the wrong direction,” he told reporters after a Senate lunch Tuesday.
His remarks followed those of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, who said that his members shared those concerns and had repeatedly made their fears known to the White House.
“The smarter way to go is to make it more surgical and more targeted,” Ryan said of the tariffs, which have yet to be formally announced.