'It's chaos!' Ex-GOP governor warns Trump may cost Republicans more than just the House
President Donald Trump is tearing apart not just the country, but his own base of support, as he threatens retribution against Republicans who oppose his tariffs, former Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) told MS NOW's Katy Tur on Thursday.
This drama culminated in a vote on Wednesday in which a small group of Republicans defected to block House leadership's effort to curtail a vote on tariffs, then an even greater number joined Democrats to oppose Trump's tariffs against Canada.
"I would tell you it's kind of a jailbreak," said Kasich, who has opposed the MAGA wing of the GOP for years and crossed the aisle to endorse former President Joe Biden in 2020. "You can see that the votes are starting to pile up. There's not a great number, but they're starting to pile up because people in the Congress are worried about the issue of affordability and frankly, tariffs."
Trump's policies in this arena, Kasich continued, are "not a conservative point of view. Conservatism believes in open markets, free markets, balanced trade, not, you know, and free trade. That's what they believe in. So for Trump to start attacking these folks who voted against him — he wants to keep the majority. How does he think he's going to keep the majority when he's attacking Republicans who make up part of the majority? And what he's going to do is going to turn his base off to those folks, which means they're more in danger."
The proof, he added, lies in the recent YouGov poll finding people think Biden was a better leader than Trump by 8 points.
"I think it's affordability, it's immigration, which is, by the way, hurting the economy, particularly in Florida," said Kasich. "A lot of places, it's chaos. It's so many of these things that are happening and frankly, people are just getting tired of it. And this election for the midterm is all about motivation. And I think the Democrats have the momentum now. And, you know, it's like a prizefighter. They're pounding him up against the ropes. The question is, can they deliver a knockout punch by having any sort of an agenda other than we don't like Trump?"
"And finally, I think the Democrats are going to win the House, I've been saying it now for a very long time, but I'm starting to believe that there is some issue about whether Republicans will keep the United States Senate," Kasich said. "We see some of the same things going on over there, and that would be pretty remarkable. I'm not prepared to say anything there, but it's getting closer."
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