Speaking on Fox News “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) praised President Trump for targeting China over its trade practices, saying, “God bless Donald Trump for finally doing something about China. Let me tell you about South Carolina. We’ve got his back here when it comes to fighting back against China.”
Graham explained that Trump was fighting back against China flooding the market with steel and aluminum:
I’m worried that we won’t stand behind the president. I’m trying to be honest with folks. Listen, the steel and aluminum tariffs have hurt BMW; they’ve hurt Boeing. But the reason we are doing this is because China, in one year, produced more steel than the entire world consumed, so Trump is pushing back against Chinese dumping of steel and aluminum to give us a chance to recreate our steel and aluminum industries.
Graham segued:
The intellectual property theft: If you go to China, they require you to have a Chinese business owner to do business in China; they steal your intellectual property and try to put you out of business.
He continued:
State owned enterprises, steel companies their largest cost is power generation, the Chinese government pays the power bill for Chinese steel mills. There’s not difference between the Chinese army, the business community, and government — they’re all one and the same. And this president is really hurting China because the supply chain, Neil, is beginning to relocate; because of these tariffs it is now more expensive to do business in China so people look into alternatives to the Chinese supply chain which will devastate their economy over time.
Cavuto pointed out that GOP Senator Roy Blount said that farmers are flinching from the economic consequences of Trump’s policies.
Graham responded, “Let me tell you, to our farmers here in South Carolina — either you’re going to fight China or you’re not. I hate it for the fact that the farm community suffers the most. No matter who you get in a trade dispute with, the first thing that goes is that they start hitting farm products. Everybody wants to buy farm products made in America so they do a lot of business in China.” He asked, “How do you get China to change their currency manipulation, their intellectual property theft, state-owned enterprises competing with the private sector? How do you do that unless you push back?”
Graham said bluntly, “So, to the farmers, it’s either pay now or pay later when it comes to China. They’re going to destroy the American economy and they’ll be nobody here really able to buy your products. So the textile industry was destroyed by China here in South Carolina. One day commodities are going to come back in America if we push back against China. I know commodities go where the labor’s the cheapest and all the good stuff but they’re not outworking us, Neil, they’re just cheating us out of market share. They’re cheating Europe out of market share.”
Graham concluded, “God bless Donald Trump for finally doing something about China. Let me tell you about South Carolina. We’ve got his back here when it comes to fighting back against China.”
Video below:
