Farm-state Senate Republicans are not terribly thrilled with how Donald Trump's trade war is playing out for farmers back home, but he's still their guy. Because at least this time he's hitting China instead of Canada or Mexico.
"They can feel it," Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt told Politico. "The farm community up 'til now has really supported the president without flinching. But eventually you flinch," he continued, hinting at potential trouble for Trump. But all the same, he concluded, "If you're going to have a trade fight, the trade fight to have would be the China fight." Iowa's Sen. Joni Ernst concurs. She says farmers in her state are "disappointed but, you know, recognizing that China is the one that is forcing this."
So instead of fighting Trump on these disastrous tariffs, they've just decided that agreeing with him that it's all China's fault is the way to go. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is intending to write a sternly worded letter to Trump about it, saying, "I'm not sure if you talk to him face to face he hears everything you say," says that maybe Congress could do a little bit more to push Trump on trade. But that letter will probably be all he actually does about—that and advising China to “get real."
Because, you know, nobody else can do anything about Trump. Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran says that the "retaliatory tariffs will have a significant consequence to Kansans," but, you know, "this authority rests in the president." South Dakota's Sen. Mike Rounds has a slightly different take: His constituents are the only ones who can do anything about Trump. "It's up to the producers," he says, to tell Trump when it's gone too far. Because he apparently was elected to delegate his authority back to the people who voted for him.
These people do not deserve to stand in the once-hallowed Senate chamber. If they can't take on the worst, most dangerous president ever (yes, worse than Nixon) to stand up for the people who elected them, for the drivers of their states' economies, what in hell are they doing there?
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