President Trump said Tuesday that he welcomed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., into the 2020 presidential race because Sanders for the most part agrees with him on international trade policy.
“I like Bernie. He is the one person that, on trade, he sort of would agree (with me) on trade. I am being very tough on trade. He is tough on trade. The problem is he doesn’t know what to do about it,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, after Sanders announced that he would run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Trump and Sanders have both called for more aggressive policies to protect domestic industries and jobs and have opposed international trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They’ve also accused China of currency manipulation and other predatory policies. Since taking office, Trump has instituted tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods and imposed levies on all steel and aluminum imports.
Sanders has criticized Trump’s trade policies, but mostly on the grounds that they have been poorly implemented or not gone far enough. “I strongly support imposing stiff penalties on countries like China, Russia, South Korea, and Vietnam to prevent them from illegally dumping steel and aluminum into the U.S. and throughout the world,” Sanders said when Trump announced the tariffs last year. “American steel and aluminum workers need our help, and they need it now, but not at the expense of farmers, workers, small businesses and consumers in Vermont and throughout this country.”
Trump argued that Sanders had “not (been) treated with respect” by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton when he last ran for the nomination in 2016.
[Related: Trump says, ‘I like Bernie,’ but he ‘missed his time’]
