Allies of President Trump’s campaign and his “America First” trade agenda are emphasizing what they say is the failure of Joe Biden to reckon with China’s “trade war” against America’s farmers and factory workers, believing it could help them win critical farm states such as Wisconsin.
“Joe Biden and his advisers just don’t understand the threat of China,” said Curtis Ellis, policy director at America First Policies and a former adviser to the Trump 2016 campaign. “They continue to talk about Trump’s trade war. The Wisconsin farmers and the Wisconsin factory workers know that it’s China’s trade war.
“Kamala Harris promised to remove the tariffs on Day One if she were elected president. She made this promise at the very moment President Trump’s team was in Beijing negotiating for a better deal for American workers.”
A senior Trump campaign official pointed to former Vice President Joe Biden’s failure to imagine China’s effect on the American economy going back decades, and as recently as last year.
Democrats had planned to hold their now-virtual Democratic Party nominating convention this week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a swing state where Trump secured an upset victory by a fraction of a point in 2016, before a surge in coronavirus cases prompted a change of plans.
The Trump campaign points to Biden’s more than four decades in public life, including eight years as vice president, during which increased global cooperation and trade helped bolster China’s influence.
“Joe Biden has been in public office for 48 years and has done nothing but push a policy of appeasement on Beijing,” said Ken Farnaso, deputy national press secretary for Trump 2020. “In his eight years as vice president, Biden even said that ‘a rising China can be a significant asset for the region and the world,’ even though his vote to give China ‘most favored nation’ trade status killed 3.2 million U.S. jobs.”
Public sentiment has shifted since Trump entered office, with Americans’ views on China souring over time. Today, 73% of U.S. adults say they now view China unfavorably, up 26% since 2018, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
White House officials have continued to echo Trump’s tough talk.
“I think in America, down to the general public, we’re all China hawks now and for good reason,” White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Director Peter Navarro told CNBC on Monday.
Speaking to Fox Business, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said China had been “spoiled for decades” by the inaction of successive U.S. administrations. “Everyone knew what was going on,” Ross said.
In Wisconsin, a RealClearPolitics average of recent polls puts Biden ahead of Trump by 6.5 percentage points. Trump won Wisconsin by less than a percentage point four years ago, securing him the Electoral College votes and delivering him the White House. Ellis said that the Biden team’s failure to acknowledge a prior trade imbalance with China was a mistake.
“President Trump knows that his stand on China and on unfair trade deals are what won him the election in 2016,” Ellis said. “That’s the reason he won Wisconsin, won Ohio, and won Pennsylvania.”
During an official visit to Whirlpool in Ohio, a battleground state, this month, Trump leveled attacks at “a country called China,” joking to the crowd, “Have you ever heard of it?”
“The Obama-Biden administration [was] perfectly happy to let China win, your jobs disappear, and your factory to close,” Trump said.
The Trump campaign’s counter-programming will continue through the week, with Vice President Mike Pence visiting Wisconsin on Wednesday and Trump on Thursday speaking from Biden’s Pennsylvania hometown, while the former vice president delivers his convention speech from Wilmington, Delaware, where he lives.
A CNN survey of 15 battleground states conducted between Aug. 12-15 placed Biden ahead by a 1-point margin at 49% to Trump’s 48%. The poll registered a 5.4 percentage point margin of error.
The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
