Donald Trump is currently being criticized by one of the Republican Party’s most high profile members.
In an interview on CBS, Mitch McConnell broke from the GOP mould in order to cast doubt on the Trump administration’s plan to impose a 25% tariff of Canada and Mexico, which the Senator believes “will drive the cost of everything up.”
“Why would you want to get into a fight with your allies over this?” McConnell asked of Trump. Trump’s tariff imposition seems to go against all “common sense” that the president claims to have – as imposing sanctions on the United States’ next door neighbors can only strain the nations’ formerly friendly relationship.
Canada is just as confused as McConnell. “Canadians are perplexed,” said the nation’s U.S. ambassador Kirsten Hillman. “We view ourselves as your neighbor, your closest friend, your ally.” Wall Street economists are baffled too, believing that Trump’s plan will only worsen inflation and curtail the U.S. economy’s growth.
Trump himself has tacitly lent credence to these doubts, the president recently announced that American consumers would feel “some pain” as the tariffs went into effect.
Trump has claimed that the tariffs will do good for the American economy, and has been saying so since before he was even president. Trump has even managed to convince his base that the tariffs will work in their favor, telling Americans during his Inaugural address that “instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries” his administration will “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.” History disagrees with Trump’s supposition, as companies importing goods tend to pass off the extra tariff cost to consumers.
Trump’s aggressive attempt to dissuade companies from importing from other nations is a prong in his “America First” trident- which he uses to poke and prod his political base into nationalistic frenzy. According to McConnell, it’s a very bad idea. “We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before World War II,” McConnell said in an interview with Financial Times, drawing a comparison between the modern day U.S.A. and its pre-war past. “Even the slogan is the same, ‘America First.’ That was what they said in the ’30s.”
The phrase “America First” was coined by Nazi sympathizers in the United States who criticized Francine Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal” policy – likening it to communism. Spurred on by nationalist media baron William Randolph Hearst, “American First” became a rallying cry for those who thought the U.S. would be better served by adopting the growing fascist sentiments of 1930’s Germany.
Trump himself has made his authoritarian aims publicly known. The president spent his first term praising autocrats, and promised that he would be a “dictator” on day one of his second. Since his Inauguration, Trump has adopted a bevy of draconian policies, and has rolled back the rights of immigrants and minorities across the nation.
Trump’s tariff plan is far from the only policy McConnell has criticized. The Senator expressed his distaste for Trump’s pardon of violent January 6th rioters, and also broke with the administration to vote against the confirmation of Trump nominee Pete Hegseth. McConnell also publicly criticized the nomination of vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the nation’s highest public heath office – citing his childhood battle with polio as the cause.
McConnell has saved his most damning criticisms of Trump for his book, where he called the president “stupid” and a “despicable human.” Now that Trump’s tariff policies have take effect, McConnell’s opinion of the president has likely only sunk lower.
Published: Feb 3, 2025 03:41 pm