If you spend any time, as I have, immersing yourself in business news networks like CNBC or Fox Business, you hear that President Trump’s insistence on tariffs on imported aluminum and steel is rock-solid economic policy—not just from the economists’ view, but the perfect political decision, and it’s simple to judge for yourself just how correct the President is on all of this.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.” and in these simple words he affirmed the photo negative of the age-old axiom, “you are known by the company you keep.” Just listen to the inside-the-Beltway establishment types.
The business establishment, K Street and Business Roundtable, are griping and sniping about President Trump’s insistence that U.S. trading partners no longer exploit us, but rather engage in fair, reciprocal, balanced trade. Oh the horror!
The Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce are particularly upset because while they’ve bought and owned both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill for decades, they can’t buy President Trump. And frankly, I don’t think he can be bought.
One of the business establishment’s most expensive influence purchases is, of course, outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan, who once again is attacking the President and the tariffs, and is helping as best he can in the efforts to frustrate the President and the desire of the American people to prosper.
“We are extremely worried about the consequences of a trade war and are urging the White House to not advance with this plan. The new tax reform law has boosted the economy and we certainly don’t want to jeopardize those gains,” Ryan said through a spokesperson.
Ryan is bought and paid for and his motivation is clear, unlike his conscience. Ryan makes no sense, for a Republican. There’s every reason to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum. The steel that is being dumped in this country by China is government-subsidized and priced dramatically below cost to subvert our domestic steel production industry.
Both steel and aluminum are strategic metals. Our defense and auto industries are dependent on them. The success of American producers and manufacturers is critical to our nation’s interest.
Speaker Paul Ryan, pure and simple, isn’t working in the national interest, or his party interests and should resign his leadership position. Ryan and his ilk have the gall to argue with Trumps success. They are simply obstructionists.
Look at the new Trump reality, the renewed American economy. Partisans in the business press tried to make a case that the Trump tariffs were misguided and that for three days the markets were falling because of the tariffs and likelihood of a trade war.
The markets have added nearly $7 trillion in value since Trump was elected. Consumer confidence is at an 18-year high. Weekly jobless claims just hit the lowest level since 1969. Manufacturing is expanding at the fastest pace since 2004.
And thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, Americans’ income after taxes saw the biggest gain in more than five years and wages are increasing at a rate of more than 3%.
This President has made it clear he intends to put American workers and American companies first, standing up to the establishment elites, multinationals, and K Street, who have had their way for several decades at the expense of working men and women, their families, small business, and the middle class.
President Trump is fighting for us, and he is the first president to poke the bear and say out loud that we’ve been in a trade war with communist China and the socialist European Union for 30 years.
He’s the only president in the last 70 years to talk UP America while actually doing something about it. That something is simple—Making America Great Again!
