Trump Pulls Off a Surprising Victory on Trade

The Republican Party’s free-trade wing has been showing signs of life. As Donald Trump makes the case for tariffs on Chinese imports, and as U.S. agricultural producers brace themselves for the fallout from China’s retaliatory measures against soybeans and other products, a parade of congressional Republicans has been for threatening to unravel a trade relationship that has greatly enriched the lives of millions of Americans, GOP voters very much included. After the Trump administration pledged $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers expected to be harmed by the trade war with China, conservative critics as either all too narrow, as it excluded other affected industries, or as unacceptably dirigiste and unbefitting a government ostensibly committed to market freedom. This despite the fact that while voters skeptical of the wisdom of increased tariffs outnumber those who favor them by 49 percent to 40 percent, self-identified Republican voters are in the latter camp. In an age when elected Republicans are woefully unwilling to criticize an often reckless president, it is no wonder that these free-trade dissenters have earned a modicum of respect across the political spectrum.