Trump Takes to Twitter to Defend His China Tariffs

As lawmakers grow more and more uneasy about the effect on upcoming elections.

Matt Rourke/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on $200 billion worth of imported Chinese goods has been widely unpopular. Even so, on Wednesday, Trump decided to up the ante: He ordered his administration to consider raising the rate from 10 percent to 25 percent.

The response from China didn’t take long. “The blackmailing and pressure by the US will never work on China if the US take[s] measures to further escalate the situation we will surely take countermeasures to firmly uphold our legitimate rights and interests,” the country’s foreign ministry spokesman said at a press briefing that day. Sure enough, by Friday, China announced it would tax $60 billion a year worth of US imports if Trump made good on his promise.

On Saturday, Trump took to Twitter to brag about the levies:

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed concern about an escalating trade war with China. A top Federal Reserve official warned two weeks ago that the conflict could hurt the US economy, Reuters reported. “Business groups have alleged that the trade threats lobbed by both countries are hurting consumers and businesses but doing little to address the root causes of the imbalance, particularly as both countries have halted formal discussions,” the Washington Post reports.

Farmers across the country—especially those harvesting large-scale commodities like soybeans, pork, corn, and almonds—worry that the tariffs could upend their industries. A White House plan that would send $12 billion in subsidies their way was met with protest, even from groups funded by the conservative American Farm Bureau. “Crops don’t grow overnight,” stated Farmers for Free Trade. “Farmers and producers need time and long-term certainty to do their jobs, not constant chaos created by haphazard trade policy.”

The chaos promises to make its way into the upcoming midterm elections. “Trump’s trade war becoming a hot potato for California House Republicans,” read the headline of a San Francisco Chronicle story from earlier this week.

Several of the most competitive House face-offs will occur in the state’s agriculture-heavy counties: California Republicans Rep. Jeff Denham and Rep. David Valadao both land on the Cook Political Report’s list of most competitive races

From what we know so far, Trump’s $12 billion in subsidies—his attempt to make up for farmer losses from the trade war—would not cover almond or citrus farmers. As my colleague Tom Philpott pointed out, two-thirds of California’s $5 billion almond crop go to foreign markets, and China is the second-leading destination. The situation could lead to a growing swarm of angry voters that could sting vulnerable GOP candidates in California come November. “There is a point in this tariff war where the damage cannot be undone,” Elaine Trevino, president of the Almond Alliance of California, told the Chronicle.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate