Trump strangles red states with 'triple whammy' as GOP struggles

Journalist and podcaster Chuck Todd said President Donald Trump is insisting on drumming up a marvelous political environment for Democrats in red and swing states as Republicans toil to sell their message to voters.

“I think back to a couple of midterms that I covered, where the president was unpopular. In 2006, George w Bush, in 2010, Barack Obama — both of those presidents were self-aware of their unpopularity. And they at least tried to practice what I call ‘do no harm politics.’ That's not Donald Trump,” Todd told anchors of CNN News Central.

Todd performed his own analysis of the Senate battleground, which is about 12 races on the outer edge of competitive, including Kansas, South Dakota, and New Hampshire. Eleven out of 12 of them, said Todd, count Canada as either their No 1 or No. 2 trading partner, which is a huge problem after Trump declared economic war on Canada this week.

“So, this is across the board. I mean, this is our neighbor to the north, and more than half the states count Canada as that,” said Todd. “Then you layer on the anger that the beef industry has. Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, they're all breach states for Democrats, but they're not out of the question. So, take Iowa, a state that has the beef issue and Canada is the No. 1 trading partner, right? It is a double whammy. Ditto on a South Dakota. Ditto on Nebraska.”

“Look at what the president has already done,” Todd added. “Never mind the Iran war itself, which is driving up fuel prices. And who pays fuel prices sort of more acutely? Those that drive more, those that live in rural states. What states did I just talk about? Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota. So now you've got a triple whammy of Trump policies: His trade war with Canada. This decision on beef [deal with Argentina] and his decision to go to war with Iran. These aren't things you're going to be able to easily say, ‘well, this is we're still trying to clean up after Biden.’”

Over the last 48 hours, Todd said more elected Republicans were already distancing themselves from certain Trump policies, with a Republican nominee in Wisconsin — a Trump endorsee, no less — blast Trump’s import deal with Argentina. Two Senate candidates in New Hampshire have also pulled back on Trump’s trade war with Canada.

“So you're going to start to see more Republicans feel like they have no choice if they want to speak to the independent swing voter to find some distance with the president,” said Todd. “… did you catch his comment when somebody said, ‘hey, you know, the American industry is hurting. And [Trump] goes, ‘well, so are Argentinian ranchers.’ And you're like, ‘that's not very America first.’”

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