In a recent post, my colleague Mary Chastain noted that when Trump signed the steel and aluminum tariffs, he was surrounded by American steel workers. For Trump, this was largely about keeping a campaign promise to American workers, but it could also serve him and Republicans well in the next two big elections.
Rush Limbaugh noted the political implications:
Democrat Nightmare! Steelworkers at Tariff SigningRUSH: The tariffs, the tariffs that Trump has announced yesterday. Exactly as I said, they’re negotiable from country to country. They were aimed, and Mexico and Canada were exempted in exchange for new negotiations on NAFTA. Trump had some steelworkers in the White House yesterday. I watched it. I said, “This would never happen…“I can’t imagine this happening with any other president. She’s been showed up, and they looked like steelworkers. They looked like Steelers fans. They looked like who they are,” and the United Steelworkers international president Leo Gerard was there. He was among them. He said, “Trump was able to see the steelworker agenda, what [Trump] did is what we’ve been fighting for for more than 30 years. … [W]hat makes me sad is we’ve been trying to get Democrats to this for more than 30 years.”And then Trump tweeted the following: “The workers who poured their souls into building this great nation were betrayed. But that betrayal is now over. … I’m delivering on a promise I made during the campaign.” This sent shockwaves through Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, states the Democrats thinks they’re gonna win back with ease. Shock waves are once again reverberating through what everybody used to believe were deep-blue states.
United Steelworkers international president Leo Gerard, who Rush mentioned above, was recently on NBC News and talked about how his organization tried to get previous administrations to do this. If you want to know how bad this is for Democrats, just take note of Chuck Todd’s condescending tone.
Here are some details via Real Clear Politics:
United Steelworkers’ Leo Gerard: Members Won’t Forget What Trump Did, He Stopped Wealth TransferIn an interview with a combative Chuck Todd, Leo Gerard, President of the United Steelworks, praised the effect of President Trump’s newly proclaimed tariffs would have on the U.S. steel market. Gerard praised Trump for making it clear he is going to “tackle trade deficits” which he called a “wealth transfer” because they are “taking good jobs away.”…Gerard said Trump was able to “see the steelworker agenda” and “he’s going to have a major impact on our members” with what he has done.”It’s going to make it very hard for our members to ignore what he just did and what makes me sad is we’ve been trying to get Democrats to this for more than 30 years,” Gerard told Todd.Gerard said Trump is finally “going to help us get a level playing field” after 20 years of promises from Democratic and Republican presidents. While unions are notoriously large supporters of Democrats, Gerard said Trump’s administration has recognized that if the next 20 years are like the last 20 years then “we have a national security problem.” Gerard made it clear his union will work with the administration to prioritize U.S.-made steel.
Watch the segment below:
Trump is a builder at heart and this is an area he knows more about than previous presidents. Keeping his campaign promises to stand by American workers is not only good policy, it’s smart politics.
Featured image via YouTube.
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