ELECTION/GOP/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump on Tuesday [7-31-18] lit into Charles and David Koch, some of the Republican Party’s top donors, in a series of tweets, after they said over the weekend they wouldn’t financially back the party’s candidate for a North Dakota Senate seat…The Koch brothers’ network of about 500 conservative and libertarian donors met this past weekend in Colorado Springs. At the conference, leaders of the Koch-backed political and policy groups said they wouldn’t support Rep. Kevin Cramer, a GOP Senate candidate challenging Democratic incumbent Heidi Heitkamp, because he has sided with Mr. Trump on tariffs. Mr. Trump won North Dakota by 36 percentage points in 2016, and Republicans see Ms. Heitkamp’s seat as one of their most promising pickup opportunities in the November midterms…The Trump administration has levied tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, hitting some of America’s closest allies, and has imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports. The Kochs and many traditional pro-business Republicans oppose tariffs, fearing an increase in the cost of industrial supplies and retaliatory tariffs imposed by trading partners.”
–Julie Bykowicz, “Trump Attacks Koch Brothers After GOP Donors Shy Away From Candidate,” The Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2018 11:30 am