WASHINGTON, July 27, 2016 - Donald
Trump’s campaign is also betting that it can win agribusiness support and run
up margins in rural areas by tapping into anger about federal regulations and
land management issues. At the same time, the campaign is walking a fine line
on trade and immigration, trying to assure producers that Trump understands
their concerns about his attacks on trade agreements and illegal immigration
without being seen as flip-flopping on the two issues the campaign feels are
vital to winning the Rust Belt states he must carry this fall.
Key to carrying out that strategy is
the agricultural advisory team and policy statement that the campaign will
release by the end of the next week, according to Sam Clovis, a senior policy
adviser to Trump and national campaign co-chairman. Clovis said the
agribusiness effort is part of a broader coalition-building effort aimed at
building grass-roots support and raising money for the campaign.
The campaign is trying to “make sure we’re able to energize farmers and
ranchers across the country and all of the people who support the ag industry,
to make sure we have the opportunity to get people to energize the voter base
in this particular area,” Clovis said in an interview with Agri-Pulse
on the sidelines of the GOP convention in Cleveland.
The names of advisory council members
will be released by the end of next week along with a position statement on
agricultural policy, Clovis said. About 15 agribusiness leaders participated in
a conference call just before the GOP convention with Clovis and Charles W.
Herbster, who is chairing the effort.
Herbster, a Trump contributor, has an
Angus breeding operation and farm in Nebraska and owns the Conklin Co., a
network marketing company involved in agronomic services and other products.
In a separate interview with Agri-Pulse,
Herbster said that signing up for the team will also give producers a
chance to provide input to Trump on farm policy. Clovis says that formation of the agribusiness advisory
team will “make sure that people understand that no decisions … related to
farming, ranching and land management” will be made without considering the
impact on them.
The Trump campaign believes that
producers will recognize that they have no alternative to Trump on regulatory
issues, and that may offset concerns they may have about him on trade,
immigration or other matters. “When you
look at Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on balance, the choice becomes very
clear very quickly,” Clovis said. “Who’s a person that understands business?
There’s not a farmer in the United States that isn’t a premier business person
because every farm is a business.”
Clovis went on: The “modern farmer wants government out of his
life. He wants regulations that make sense, or he wants to have a business and
run a business without having to fight the EPA, the IRS … and we have a way of
doing that. If Hillary Clinton is elected that’s not going to happen.”
Trump made clear at the convention, if
it wasn’t already, that he’s going to keep attacking U.S. trade policy all the
way to November. His acceptance speech in Cleveland on July 21 included an
extended attack on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the North American Free
Trade Agreement.
And during a subsequent interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, Trump reiterated his threat to slap stiff import tariffs
on companies that move factories out of the United States, and he said the
United States might withdraw from the World Trade Organization if it objects.
The WTO would be expected to rule such duties to be illegal. “It doesn't
matter,” Trump said. “Then we're going to renegotiate or we’re going to pull
out. These trade deals are a disaster, Chuck. (The) World Trade Organization is
a disaster.”
Former Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman,
who is assisting Clovis and Herbster in setting up the Trump advisory council, suggested
that Trump might be bluffing on at least one promise, not to do multilateral
trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Heineman said Trump
could negotiate changes in the deal, which is what Clinton has proposed. “Let’s
get Donald Trump in there and renegotiate a trade deal that’s good for
agriculture, good for manufacturing and all parts of our economy,” Heineman
said.
But former presidential candidate and
Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum,
whose book “Blue Collar Conservatives” reportedly influenced Trump’s campaign
message, says he
expects Trump to stick with his criticism of the TPP and multilateral
agreements broadly. “He’ll stay on the message of
hopefully enforcing our trade laws, which we don’t do, and promoting trade but
doing it in a way that respects America’s ability to represent its interest in
bilateral agreements,” said Santorum, who attended the GOP convention and urged
delegates to support Trump.
Clovis said he understands that
farmers and agribusiness companies are nervous about Trump’s opposition to TPP
and his threat to impose stiff duties on China, a critical market for U.S.
soybeans in particular.
“What they
ought to be nervous about is the fact that we have countries that we’re trading
with who do not play by the rules. All
we have ever said from the start of our campaign is that we want everybody to
play by the rules. If you have a country that is manipulating currency or if
they are committing unfair trade practices or they are manipulating prices
because of their purchases … that’s not good for the farmers.”
He also said that the attacks on trade
policy are critical to the campaign’s strategy for winning states such as
Pennsylvania and Ohio where voters believe they have lost jobs to China and
Mexico. “Have you been to a rally in
one of these Rust Belt states? I tell you what, trade has hammered the northern
tier of states in incredible ways – Ohio, Indiana Illinois, Iowa to some
extent, certainly going into Pennsylvania, and New York and New Hampshire. You
ought to go to New Hampshire and see what’s happened because of NAFTA, what’s
happened because of the Chinese – it’s been devastating.”
On the immigration issue, Heineman seemed to suggest that the threat to deport illegal
immigrants wasn’t ironclad. “Let's see what happens after the election, how you
go about doing it,” he said.
But Clovis would offer no reassurances
to farmers who may be worried about losing their workers. Clovis said the
campaign can’t afford to go back on Trump’s pledge to enforce immigration laws,
an issue that “has been at the core of the campaign since the beginning.”
“How do we
go to there and all of a sudden say we’re going to do this, except for farmers.
Or we’re going to do this, except for ag workers? We’re going to do this,
except for meat producers? We’re going to do this, except for,” and he paused. “You
can’t do that, because you’re going to run a campaign. We made a promise to the
American people and we’re going to keep it.”
The Trump advisers said they would be
reaching out at some point to Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan.,
and House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas. “There’s
no doubt in anybody’s mind that we need to interface with”
those committees, said Heineman.
Heineman
will find a receptive listener in Conaway, who attended the convention and told
Agri-Pulse flatly that “Donald Trump
is the choice for the Republicans in the fall.”
“As
people look at Hillary appointing the Supreme Court vacancies, all the things
that a third Barack Obama term would do, I think it’s going to be clear what we
all have to do,” Conaway added. “When I say I’m going to vote Republican or
vote for Trump, it’ll be the same thing.”
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