The Kings of Coal are not happy with The Trump White House. The fraternal heads of Koch Industries want to trade freely with America’s neighbors and allies, and now Donald Trump is making that difficult to do.
According to Time, the Kochs are backing this multi-million dollar campaign to promote free trade and oppose tariffs.
Freedom Partners is the organization that coordinates the Koch network’s political activities. The ads will run in the Washington D.C. market and on national conservative talk programs, respectively.
In addition to calling for the removal of the steel and aluminum tariffs, the Kochs are urging Trump to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), resume negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and lift proposed tariffs on imports from China.
“Trade lifts people out of poverty and improves lives. It is critical to America’s future prosperity and our consumers, workers, and companies,” Freedom Partners Executive Vice President James Davis said. “Tariffs and other trade barriers make us poorer.”
Farm-State Senators Are Pissed Off
When the Koch Brothers are against you, your agenda is in trouble.
When Republican Senators from the middle of American are against your agenda, your political future is in jeopardy.
According to The Washington Post, Sen. John Thune (S.D.) said, “Corn, wheat, beef, and pork are all suffering market price declines due to current trade policies. With every passing day, the United States loses market share to other countries.”
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) said “we watched the soybean market start to collapse” because of trade-war concerns.
Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) warned that steel and auto producers in Ohio will be, “hit harder than any other state by the Canadian retaliatory tariffs.”
Liberalism Means Freedom
Charles Koch wants to battle the injustice of poverty like compassionate conservatives from another time. Are we to believe him? He’s one of the great industrialists of our time, directly responsible for the proliferation of greenhouse gases and other environmental devastation. He’s also pumped gushers of cash into Republican campaigns. It’s hard to balance the man’s record with his desire to be humanitarian.
In 2016, Koch said that because he’s not a politician worried about the next election, he has the flexibility to make an issues-based appeal to Americans through ads.
“We’re not running a popularity contest. We’re not promising people things that can’t be delivered,” Koch said. “We’re trying to encourage people to think about how do I succeed by helping others improve their lives” even if it involves doing things that “may not win me votes or get me a lot of money.”
