President Donald Trump’s allies fear his newest tariff threats will swamp Republican messaging on living costs ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections.
Trump, 80, has spent the week rattling two sets of importers. Canadian goods worth about $20 billion face a threatened 50 percent rate. Generic medicines face a 100 percent increase. Neither starts immediately, though, with the Canadian duties penciled for August 19 and the drug levies landing sometime in 2028.
Politico reports that the moves have sparked alarm inside the party, citing two people in the president’s orbit who spoke anonymously about midterm risks. One said voters think only one thing when they hear word of a new levy: “Oh c--p, those are the bad things.”
A second put the politics more bluntly. “Any conversation about tariffs, unless it’s reducing them, is a bad conversation for Republicans,” the person told the outlet.
Trump’s threats have landed as his administration tries to reassemble the tariffs scheme gutted in February after the Supreme Court ruled huge parts of the president’s trade regime unlawful. Another round of duties between 10 and 12.5 percent, covering 97 countries, is due within days.
The administration disputes any cause for alarm. White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Politico that “no amount of armchair pontificating will deter the president” from backing U.S. workers and industry. Other aides have argued that the measures are narrow, and that voters fret over housing costs and fuel, not booze and hockey gear.
Exemptions to Trump’s tariffs carry their own trap. Chad Bown, who was chief economist at the State Department under President Joe Biden, told Politico a divide has opened between what the public grasps and how the policy actually works. Shoppers cannot see the prices they were spared, while the carve-outs drain incoming revenue. “In a sense, that could backfire,” he said.
Peter Woodcock, president and CEO of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, said hundreds of firms in his state would be weighing the fallout. “We do not go unscathed from this,” he told Politico.
The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment on this story.
“President Trump’s announcement provides a two-year runway for generic drugmakers to reshore production back into the United States, and the Administration’s full equipment expensing, aggressive deregulation, and other policies are aimed at making this transition as seamless as possible,” spokesman Kush Desai said. “The President’s resounding success securing firm reshoring plans from global drugmakers as part of our Most-Favored-Nations deals and Section 232 tariff program for branded drugs is proof that this Administration’s has a track record of success to get critical manufacturing back into the United States.”
He further described the Canadian tariffs as “narrow, targeted, and in response to unfair Canadian trade practices that Canadian officials have failed to change over the past year during trade talks.”
