Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is sounding the alarm that the Republican Party's electoral gains among working-class voters will evaporate if the GOP doesn't wise up.
President Donald Trump's administration announced that he will make a new address in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, where he will address Americans' economic struggles. As CNN's Stephen Collinson wrote Monday, Trump's first challenge will be admitting there is a problem with his economy. Thus far, Trump has maintained that the economy is strong and ignored the high cost of living created, in part, by his tariffs.
Semafor reported Monday that Hawley told them that, by ignoring an economic crisis and pledging to fix it on "day one," Trump could hurt the party with voters.
“I think it is at risk. I think there’s no doubt about that. The president knows it’s at risk,” the Missouri Republican said when speaking to Semafor. “Voters aren’t stupid. They’re not in this because they’re loyal to some party or another. They’re in it to try to improve the conditions of their lives.”
Traditionally, Republicans support economic ideas associated with trickle-down economics, that is, giving tax cuts and financial benefits to the highest wage earners and corporations, assuming those benefits will ultimately trickle down to lower-income wage earners. Some of Trump’s campaign policy ideas challenge that, such as his no-taxes-on-tips proposal, which would exempt the first $25,000 in tips from income tax for workers who earn tipped wages. Anything over that $25,000 threshold would still be taxed.
Another proposal from Trump has been to give checks to Americans to cover the higher costs exacerbated by Trump's tariffs. Trump has maintained that his tariffs are paid by other countries, not Americans. That has been debunked by fact-checkers.
Hawley told Semafor that his fellow GOP lawmakers are rejecting Trump's policies, like reducing the costs of drug prices, and they're doing so at their own peril.
“If they do, then they’ll lose … If we want to be a majority party, our future is to be a working-class party," Hawley said.
In the recent "Big, Beautiful Bill," Republicans dramatically cut Medicaid, Medicare, and killed subsidies for those using the Affordable Care Act exchange to purchase health insurance. The subsidies "keep health care premiums down for millions," Semafor said.
“The institutionalist Republican Party is not a populist party. I think that’s pretty clear,” Hawley said. “The bottleneck’s in Congress. You’ve got Trump out there saying we ought to do dividend checks. You’ve got Trump out there saying we need to do a deal that will lower prescription drugs for everybody. You don’t see Congress acting.”
Read the full report here.
