CHINA/ELECTIONS/MIKE PENCE/TRADE WAR/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Vice President Mike Pence begins a campaign swing through the Midwest on Wednesday [7-11-18] designed to fire up the base in three battleground House districts. But there’s also a secondary mission: damage control. In the face of a trade war that intensified just four days ago, Pence is quietly setting up one-on-one meetings with major Midwestern donors where he is prepared to blunt concerns over an escalating situation that’s beginning to wreak havoc on markets, farmers and employers across the region…The vice-president’s trip — announced Monday [7-9-18], just days after the United States leveled a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion of Chinese goods and China enacted equivalent retaliatory tariffs — will take him to Kansas City, Cedar Rapids and Chicago, where he’ll meet privately with big donors and attend fundraisers for three embattled Republican House incumbents. Pence is also planning public events with America First Policies, a group that is advocating for the Trump tax cuts…The timing of the visits, paired with the donor meetings, is the first sign of an administration effort to manage political blowback from a trade war the president started — a confrontation that could prove costly to the GOP’s efforts to hold its majorities in the House and the Senate.”
–Natasha Korecki, “Pence launches Midwest damage control mission,” Politico, July 11, 2018 2:12 pm