June 5, 2019

Republicans Aren’t Going to Stop Trump’s Tariffs on Mexico

Yes, this is California's most famous Kevin. It's embarrassing, but what can you do?Alex Edelman/CNP via ZUMA

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The news is full of storm and fury from Senate Republicans over President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on all imports from Mexico, but none of it matters:

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called on Senate Republicans to support President Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on Mexican exports unless that country does more to try to force action to curb illegal border crossings.

“End of the day we should support the president so we can get an agreement so we don’t have tariffs. Them talking about not supporting him undercuts his ability to do that,” McCarthy, who has emerged as a staunch ally of the White House on Capitol Hill, told reporters Wednesday.

Trump’s abuse of his tariff authority should alarm everyone, including Republicans. But it doesn’t. Even if Senate Republicans somehow managed to muster the courage to stop the tariffs and then override a Trump veto, it would all stop dead in the House. There’s no courage there, and no principle either.

POSTSCRIPT: Just to be clear, by “principle” I mean the principle that the United States keeps its word. Both the WTO and NAFTA are designed specifically to prevent countries from using tariffs as generalized weapons of foreign policy, the way Trump is doing. We are signatories to both. Trump can get away with what he’s doing because, you know, who’s going to stop him? But it means that America’s word is worthless and the Republican Party is fine with that.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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