Former President Donald Trump vowed a “sweeping pro-American overhaul” of the nation’s trade policies if returned to the White House, drawing early battle lines in the Republican presidential nominating contest by reviving a message that helped propel him to victory in 2016.
Trump’s early focus on the issue suggests the former president is eyeing territory where he believes he has an edge over his potential Republican rivals.
It’s also an appeal that President Joe Biden sought to harness in 2020 when the Democrat pitched voters on a trade agenda that he said would promote the interests of working Americans.
GOP DARK HORSES SEE 2024 PATH IN SURVIVING TRUMP-DESANTIS MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION
In a campaign video, Trump promised to ensure “a system that rewards domestic production and taxes foreign companies and those who export American jobs,” as well as reject “a Biden system that punishes domestic producers and rewards outsourcers.”
In 2016, Trump captured traditional “blue wall” states with this focus on trade and drew again from this base of support to win states such as Ohio in 2020.
The former president this week said that if elected again to the White House, he would levy “universal baseline tariffs on most foreign products,” hike tariffs in response to other countries’ currency manipulation or unfair trade practices, adopt a four-year plan to phase out all Chinese imports of goods such as steel and pharmaceuticals and ban federal contracts for any company that outsources to China.
Trump also pledged to revoke Beijing’s “most favored nation” trade status, a move that would drastically raise tariffs on some half-trillion dollars’ worth of goods imported annually from China.
“My agenda will tax China to build up America,” he said.
Trade hawks said they believed that Trump’s influential former U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, was behind the agenda.
The announcement comes as a new poll shows Trump surging in a head-to-head match-up against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), a likely top competitor for the 2024 nomination.
After trailing DeSantis for several months, Trump now leads the Florida governor with Republican voters, 47% to 39%, a net 12 percentage point swing, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov survey of 1,516 U.S. adults conducted between Feb. 23 and Feb. 27. DeSantis led Trump 45% to 41% in early February.
DeSantis emerged as Trump’s strongest potential rival after Florida Republicans swept to victory in the midterm elections, notching support from independents and centrists. He defied Republicans’ lackluster results nationally, including some of the former president’s high-profile endorsements.
In a memoir published this week, the Florida governor attacked the decision to grant China “most favored nation” trading status and railed against decades of American trade policy that he said had “enriched large corporations in the United States, further eroded America’s industrial base, and bolstered the CCP.”
Yet trade hawks say they are still parsing DeSantis’s approach to trade and tariffs, policies that could become decisive in a close nominating race.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner last year, Trump’s former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, suggested it was “common sense” that China should no longer receive most favored nation status. Pompeo is one of several prominent Republicans exploring a possible presidential bid in 2024.
In the video shared on Truth Social, Trump took aim at Biden, whose administration has passed new legislation to boost U.S. semiconductor and other manufacturing. He also said he would impose protections to ensure China cannot circumvent restrictions by passing goods through conduit countries.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Joe Biden claims to support American manufacturing, but in reality, he is pushing the same pro-China globalist agenda that ripped the industrial heart out of our country,” Trump said.
Republican lawmakers have urged Biden to stop Chinese green energy companies from violating U.S. trade laws intended to level the playing field for American workers.
