Trump gives GOP Senate leader 'heartburn' as tariffs may 'cripple' his state: report

As President Donald Trump threatens to slap blanket tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico, Politico reports that Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and fellow Republicans from agricultural states are getting "heartburn" as their states are most likely to suffer from such actions.

As background, Politico notes that "retaliatory tariffs during Trump's 2018 trade war crippled South Dakota's agriculture-dependent economy -- which relies on billions of dollars worth of soybeans, corn, beef and other agricultural products it exports abroad every year."

Furthermore, the report contends that farms in South Dakota are "still reeling" from the losses they suffered in those years and that an even bigger trade war between the United States' two biggest trading partners would be "devastating."

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Despite this, Thune has yet to weigh in with full-throated opposition to Trump's tariff plan and has only said that he prefers to see tariffs "used in a targeted way."

In fact, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that many of Trump's own advisers are scrambling to stop him from going through with his most destructive ideas for trade wars, as they are trying to convince him to exempt tariffs on goods such as Canadian oil and to give a grace period before they begin so as not to upset markets.