President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Twirling Time · Jun 5, 2018

Neutral Corner said: ↑

From the WaPo's Daily Finance:

President Trump’s trade offensive just drew its first serious opposition at home.

Congressional Republican leaders may be unwilling for now to do more than voice their objections to billions of dollars in tariffs the administration is moving to impose on imports from around the globe. But the Koch brothers’ political network is stepping into the breach, launching what its executives are framing as a multiyear, multimillion-dollar campaign to knock down the new trade barriers.

The push by the deep-pocketed conservative powerhouse threatens, for one, to reorder the debate around the president’s trade agenda. Republican lawmakers seeking reelection in a perilous environment have been largely loath to challenge the president. The Koch network is offering an incentive, demanding candidates fight for free trade to win its potentially make-or-break backing.

“We’ll be supporting those folks who will be champions, not just passive supporters,” Freedom Partners Executive Vice President James Davis said in an interview. He said the group is evaluating candidates on other issues, too — including tax and regulatory policy, immigration and sentencing reform — but trade ranks as a top criterion.

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, 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: The administration imposed new levies on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico last week and threatened to press ahead with at least $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 business-focused tax cuts. But the group began signaling frustration this spring with what they view as a diminished Republican agenda. “For now, the network led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch still plans to spend between $300 million to $400 million on politics and policy during the 2018 cycle,” my colleague James Hohmann wrote back in April. “But they’re growing impatient, rethinking their approach and signaling a willingness to work more closely with Democrats on areas of common ground.”

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 policymakers who enable protectionism.

Davis said while the organizations will continue to invest in promoting the benefits of the tax cuts — a cornerstone of the argument Republicans are making to voters in the midterms — their new focus on fighting Trump’s trade moves will inevitably cut in. “Are some staffers going to have to divide their attention? Yes,” he said. “It is a significant policy challenge and one that we’re going to bring a lot of resources to.”
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Trump vs. Koch. The GOP Civil War is finally slouching toward Fort Sumter.

TheSportsPredictor · Jun 5, 2018

YankeeFan said: ↑

Ted Cruz thread on whetya President can pardon himself:

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Double Down · Jun 5, 2018

Steak Snabler said: ↑

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I’m sure Fox will put this on the air, unless the assumption is all the olds will see it on Twitter.

MisterCreosote · Jun 5, 2018

Only in 2018 America do we have to decide who’s right between “Agolf Twitler” and “Kevin M Tuttle” in a constitutional law debate.

Donny in his element · Jun 5, 2018

Michael_ Gee said: ↑

A season of Rust Belt hurricanes in rural Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio would be genuine weather news for sure.
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So Alberto's rare foray into Lake Michigan a week or two ago was actually just a beta test of the real thing. Makes sense in hindsight.

Inky_Wretch · Jun 5, 2018

garrow · Jun 5, 2018

When Trump is gone, what are they gonna say about him? He was a kind man? He was a wise man? He had plans? He had wisdom?

Baron Scicluna · Jun 5, 2018

garrow said: ↑

When Trump is gone, what are they gonna say about him? He was a kind man? He was a wise man? He had plans? He had wisdom?
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Cross him off then.

TheSportsPredictor · Jun 5, 2018

Two decades after “Sex and the City” premiered, the show’s writers remain extremely proud of their creation, with one exception – name-dropping then-businessman Donald Trump and later giving him a cameo.

“If we could do it over again the main thing we would chose is not to involve Donald Trump,” the writers told author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, whose new book “Sex and the City and Us,” out Tuesday, examines the show’s impact and staying power.
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'Sex and the City' writers have one huge regret on show’s 20th anniversary - NY Daily News

HanSenSE · Jun 5, 2018

melock · Jun 5, 2018

Manafort's dumbest move yet: Using a former Russian intelligence officer for witness-tampering?

No collusion!!!

franticscribe · Jun 5, 2018

The only way the Scott Pruitt story ends is in federal prison, right?

Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to help his wife find a job — with Chick-fil-A

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President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

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Twirling Time Well-Known Member

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