Grassley says president getting trade results despite criticism

COUNCIL BLUFFS — President Donald Trump will be in Iowa today, facing criticism over his recent threat to raise tariffs on all products from Mexico.

The move prompted Mexican officials to agree to work with the U.S. in stopping the flow of immigrants across the border, and Trump responded by dropping the tariff threat. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has heard those who say the president’s tactics were questionable.

“The president is successful through these negotiations,” Grassley says. “Whatever tools he used, I might not even agree with those tools, but by golly, you gotta’ admit that they worked.” The president threatened a 5% tariff on Mexican imports initially, with the amount rising to a 25% tariff by October. We’ll never know if Trump would have followed through on that significant threat, and critics charge the president was “crying wolf.”

“He’ll just have to face the criticism and I can disagree with the criticism but it’s a fact of life that this president’s going to be criticized for the next 18 months that he’s president,” Grassley says, “and he’ll probably be president for another four years beyond that.”

Grassley says even if you don’t like his methods, the president is getting results. “He’s a president that ran on a platform, he’s carrying out that platform,” Grassley says. “A lot of politicians don’t do that and controlling the border was one of the things he run on.”

Trump will tour a Council Bluffs ethanol plant this afternoon, then he’ll go to West Des Moines for a Republican Party of Iowa fundraiser.