McConnell goes after Trump’s trade policy: ‘I’m not a fan of tariffs’

“I’m not a fan of tariffs. They raise prices for American consumers,” McConnell said. I’m more of a free-trade Republican who remembers how many jobs are created by the exports we engage in, so I’m not a fan of tariffs.”

Trump has pledged to impose a blanket 10 percent tariff on all imported goods if elected — and engaged in a trade war with China during his previous administration.

At the same time, Biden kept many of these tariffs on Chinese goods and introduced more of them. Vice President Kamala Harris suggested she would take a more targeted approach to tariffs than Trump and likened the former president’s trade proposal to a “Trump sales tax.”

Experts said Trump’s proposal would likely raise prices, but the former president disputed that, saying in an April interview with Time that he didn’t “think the costs would go up that much.”

McConnell’s comments signal that Trump will likely face resistance from his own party on trade if he is elected in November.

Although the Kentucky senator is set to step down from his post at the end of this Congress, several Republican senators have also rejected Trump’s tariff plans.

Among the skeptics are Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and John Cornyn of Texas, who told Axios last month they were skeptical of blanket tariffs.