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The former president used tariff talk to remind that Republican was not a synonym for conservative as he slighted a “certain senator” in particular: “he’s a good guy…even though he’s progressive.”

(Video: Fox Business)

During an interview with Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow that premiered Friday, former president Donald Trump spoke to the reality that not every member of Congress with an “R” next to their name was fully aligned with his policy positions, despite the successes of his initial term in office.

Notably, he called out staunch supporter South Carolina Lindsey Graham during a response to a question on the matter of imposing tariffs against China.

“If China charges us — on a car — 100%, we charge them on a car 100%. It’s very simple,” Trump told Kudlow. “You know, I have a certain senator named Lindsey Graham. And he’s not into this as much as he is other things. And he’s a nice guy, good guy. And you know, he cares.”

“He loves the country even though he’s a progressive. That’s okay,” asserted the president. “These are minor details.”

Before boiling the negotiation process down to, “they charge us, we charge them,” the GOP leader had recalled, “But I said, so Lindsey, let’s talk reciprocity.”

Despite asserting to the host how his pitch had sold Graham on the foreign trade approach, the president expressed, “But we have guys, even in Congress, that, for whatever reason, they don’t wanna do it. They actually say it’s not fair trade. And I say, you’re right it’s not fair trade; not fair trade for us.”

Throughout Trump four years in the White House, Graham had taken both sides of the tariff debate, even as the then-president’s deal-making had proven effective in getting Chinese President Xi Jinping to budge.

In 2018, it had been reported how Xi had acquiesced to pressure had agreed to “significantly lower” tariffs on cars in the face of pressure from the White House.

“China does not seek a trade surplus,” the Chinese Communist Party leader had said. “We have a genuine desire to increase imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account.”

The following year, Graham had said during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” “How do you get China to change without creating some pain on them and us? I don’t know.”

Those remarks came as Trump had signaled he was raising existing tariffs at the time from 25% to 30% in response to a decision from China to hit American automobiles with a 25% tariff in addition to other tariffs.

“The goal is to get them to change their behavior,” Graham told host Margaret Brennan. “The Chinese government, the Chinese army and the Chinese business community are one and the same. They’re very mercantile. You don’t have these disputes among democracies, but the Chinese Communist Party runs everything in China.”

Friday’s slight on Graham was not the first time that Trump had referred to the senator as a progressive, nor was it the only time that the longtime politician had faced flack from conservatives as he had been repeatedly booed when the president had mentioned him in front of home state crowds.

Meanwhile, the GOP leader assured Kudlow of his trade plans, “If we do this, we could become, overnight, a power again, economically. We’ll never be a power unless we do it.”

Kevin Haggerty
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