Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” network senior political analyst Brit Hume said that although he was skeptical of President Donald Trump’s effort to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, he noted that it was something Trump had ran on.
As president, Trump has tried to keep his campaign promises, Hume added.
Partial transcript as follows:
Steel has been a troubled industry in the United States for about as long as I can remember. There are serious disadvantages, competitive disadvantages that steel has with other countries around the world where they could produce the stuff much cheaper and they too have big industries that — that create that product and they’ve got to do something with them. And that creates the — the situation of glut which we now have which is affecting the U.S. steel industry.
It is a strategic metal, there’s no doubt about that. You have to have the capacity to get steel when you need it if there’s an international conflict of some kind. But this has been tried before, as John Roberts noted earlier when President Bush tried this with steel and he ended up lifting them after a while because the retaliation was strong and it didn’t really work. I’m dubious as to whether it will work this time.
But remember this about this president, Shannon, this is something he basically promised to do during the campaign. And say what you will about Trump, he does try to keep his campaign promises. And I think in this case he’s trying to redeem another one. How far he wants to go with it obviously is what we’re all watching.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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