Speaking with CNBC Wednesday in Hong Kong, former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said the Donald Trump administration’s tough trade talk is not populism or nationalism — it’s ‘Trumpism.’
Priebus told CNBC that the president has been a long-term opponent of trade imbalances.
“He’s been talking about this since 1980,” he said. “His default position is what we’re seeing right now.”
The president likes to begin negotiations with a hard-line position and then pull back from that tough stance incrementally, Priebus said. He cited how Trump at first proposed tariffs that applied to aluminum and steel imports across the board, but subsequently took Mexico and Canada “off the table.”
Throughout the interview with CNBC, the former chief of staff had emphatic compliments for his old boss, saying the president “is a force in and of himself, which the Republican Party has benefited from.”
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
