Another fault line in the MAGA coalition forms

Created
Thu, 02/03/2023 - 12:00
Updated
Thu, 02/03/2023 - 12:00
Here’s an interesting new wrinkle in the American First populism of the Republican Party. Some MAGA oxes are potentially being gored and they don’t like it: Donald Trump’s latest salvo in his trade war with China is raising hackles among fellow Republicans from farm states, a crucial voting bloc in the 2024 GOP primary. The former and would-be future president pitched a new proposal Monday to overhaul the U.S. trading relationship with Beijing, part of a wave of anti-China rhetoric surging through Washington in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon flap earlier this month. But while there is consensus within the GOP on taking a tough line, many rural Republicans were quick to reject Trump’s calls to slap new tariffs on Chinese goods — since Beijing targeted the U.S. farm economy during the former president’s last trade war with China. The rare pushback, in public and private, presents an early break with some representatives for one of his key constituencies: rural Americans. Trump argues his recent proposal, which also includes revoking China’s preferred trading status, would reduce “taxes” on “American producers” in order to “completely eliminate” U.S. dependence on China. But key farm state lawmakers say it’s more complicated than that and they worry Trump’s plans, should he be reelected, would inflict new harm on the U.S. agricultural economy, which currently relies on exports to its biggest market: China. “There are serious trade disparities that should rightfully be raised, but we should be honest about the potential economic impact to rural…