In the wake of the resignation of Trump’s Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn, the topic of conversation on The View turned to not just the growing list of vacancies within the Trump administration, but the president’s newly announced tariffs that are starting to turn many prominent Republicans against him. Pointing out that Trump is nationalist whereas Gary Cohen is a globalist, Meghan McCain noted that “with these tariffs coming up, it really is exemplifying the fracture within the Republican party, and it looks like nationalism is still winning.”
But that may change. Because those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, McCain brought up the fact that George W. Bush imposed steel tariffs in 2002 which ended up costing 200,000 American jobs and setting the economy back $30 million.
After the others struggled to come up with Trump’s motivation for these tariffs — between his own party’s disapproval and his very penchant for putting up buildings made of imported steel all over the world with his name on them — McCain made an excellent point that this could be where the tide turns.
There’s gonna be a bottom line here. Like, when your beer, your aluminum can of Budweiser you drink starts costing more, and you start having your Second Amendment rights possibly infringed on, my bets are hedged that’s when his base will start moving, and if the Democrats end up winning congress during the midterms, I think we’re gonna see a liberal President Trump going forward.
She later continued, with the reminder that the European Union is already planning to retaliate with tariffs on steel, bourbon, peanut butter, cranberries, orange juice, Harley Davidson, and Levi jeans — many products that just so happen to be popular in Rust Belt states.
You said yesterday that 85 percent of the Republican party are still behind him,” Joy Behar asked McCain, after some further discussion. “Do you think this will change that?” “Listen to what I just said, Second Amendment, beer cans — this is gonna start impacting the bottom line,” she quipped back, referring to Trump’s openness for gun control measures.
Time will certainly tell, but it’s worth noting that Democrats are already setting up the stage for a potential GOP bloodbath in November.