GOP/SENATE/TARIFFS/TRADE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake hit Donald Trump on trade Thursday [7-6-18], slamming the President for ‘acting on a whim to punish this country or that one,’ through trade tariffs…Flake joined Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, and a bipartisan group of senators Wednesday [6-6-18] sponsoring legislation that would require lawmakers to approve movement on trade from the White House on the basis of national security, stymieing the administration’s tariffs on Canadian steel…Corker’s bill has faced significant pushback — CNN reported Trump called Corker Wednesday, encouraging the retiring senator to back off legislation in a ‘lengthy’ call, while Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed his own antipathy, telling SiriusXM’s Olivier Knox, ‘I don’t think we need to be trying to rein in the President through legislation.’ But Flake was optimistic Thursday, telling CNN, ‘We’ll see. We have (the National Defense Authorization Act) bill coming up. Ever senator has significant leverage, because you have to have unanimous consent to move ahead to consider the bill,’ suggesting the action on trade could be attached as an amendment to the NDAA.”
-Donald Judd, “Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake calls out Trump on trade,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, June 7, 2018 1:59 pm