, Columnist
Trump’s Allies Say He Really Wants Free Trade. Fat Chance.
He’s not using tariffs to expand global commerce, despite some pundits’ claims.
It was all so simple then.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
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A lot of Republicans in Congress will tell you that they support President Donald Trump but disagree with him about trade. There is, however, a small group of conservatives who have found a more ingenious method for reconciling their support for free trade with their enthusiasm for the president.
They have remade him into a fellow free trader in their own minds. And having reinvented Trump in this way, they are going on to fashion him into a highly effective free trader at that.