Donald Trump continues to enjoy success where other Republicans have experienced failure. The conservative Club for Growth has offered rare praise to GOP leadership for opposing the president-elect’s call for tariffs. Albeit through opposition, he’s unifying the party.
Late Monday morning House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy rejected Trump’s 35 percent retaliatory tariff, noting that there were better ways of “solving the problem than getting into a trade war.” By early afternoon, the free market group was already singing McCarthy’s praises.
“Club for Growth backs House leadership’s warning against tariffs,” read a statement on the group’s website, before concluding that the punitive measures “would be devastating to consumers and businesses.”
On its face the statement is boring. When read in context, it could be interpreted as an olive branch inside the conservative movement — especially considering the proxy war that Club for Growth has been waging against establishment Republicans.
Since its 1999 founding, the organization has judged the legislative records of members according to a strict free market and anti-tax litmus test. It’s hardly a pass-fail examination. Scoring slightly above average isn’t acceptable and can ensure election trouble.
It’s not unusual, in fact, for the group to spend more against Republicans it finds ideologically wanting than Democrats it finds objectionable. This year was no different.
From Arizona to Florida, the Club emptied its war chest out to support far right candidates for Congress. In particular, its super PAC spent a reported $3.7 million to bolster the chances of House Freedom Caucus members, the anti-establishment faction that’s been giving Paul Ryan fits since he picked up the speaker’s gavel.
While Club for Growth has been kind to McCarthy, because of his opposition to the Export-Import Bank, Ryan hasn’t been so lucky.
When Congress was still locked in a battle over the budget, the group’s president, David McIntosh, threatened to slap the speaker with a “C or D rating” on its report card. Before that, Ryan earned a B- when he was chairing the House Budget Committee. But that antagonism could quickly be forgotten in face of a common threat.
Even though Trump now employs Club for Growth founder Stephen Moore, the president-elect often strays from free market orthodoxy. As the New York businessman prepares to move into Washington, D.C., the group is looking for allies — even ones it once rejected.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
