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Donald Trump.
- President Donald Trump slammed billionaire GOP mega donor Charles Koch for expressing concern for foreign workers hurt by Trump's trade war.
- Koch said Trump's policies hurt foreign workers, and Trump agreed, saying he put "AMERICA FIRST."
- Trump's latest attack on Koch plays off his previous one, in which he called him a "globalist."
- Trump has been attacking the Kochs since they publicly broke with him over trade policy and his "divisiveness."
President Donald Trump slammed billionaire GOP mega-donor Charles Koch for expressing concern for the plight of foreign workers hurt by the tariffs and trade barriers imposed by Trump in his burgeoning trade war.
"It's unfair to their people," Koch said of Trump's tariffs in an interview with ABC.
Trump's response not only bashed Koch's concern for foreign workers, but also cast doubt on whether the Koch brothers are still major political donors at all.
"Charles Koch of Koch Brothers, who claims to be giving away millions of dollars to politicians even though I know very few who have seen this (?), now makes the ridiculous statement that what President Trump is doing is unfair to 'foreign workers.' He is correct, AMERICA FIRST!" Trump tweeted.
Trump's contrast between putting "America first" and concern for foreign workers recalls his previous attack on Koch, in which he labeled him a "globalist."
So far, Trump's trade war, mainly a series of proposed tariffs, have yet to have an appreciable impact on many sectors of the economy. Trump's trade policy has always held the US worker as more important than foreign workers, and seeks to return manufacturing and other industries to the US.
The Koch network has reliably supported Republicans running for office, and even pledged money to help sell Trump's new tax plan. In 2016, when Trump was elected, the Kochs had a budget of $889 million.
For the 2018 midterm elections, in which Trump could potentially lose both houses of Congress, the Koch's have pledged to spend $400 million on political campaigns.
But the Koch network has visibly broken with Trump in the last few months, citing the "divisiveness" of Trump's White House and objections to his trade policies.