GAETZ VS McCARTHY PART II — Rep. MATT GAETZ has already killed KEVIN McCARTHY’s congressional career, leading the charge to wrest the speaker’s gavel away from the California Republican and send him into an early retirement. Now, Gaetz is gleefully trampling on McCarthy’s political grave. The Floridian has been wading into House GOP primary fights around the country, endorsing challenges to McCarthy’s chosen candidates, our colleagues Madison Fernandez and Gary Fineout report this morning.
- In Ohio’s 9th district, where Republicans are again hoping to unseat Democrat MARCY KAPTUR, Gaetz has endorsed J.R. MAJEWSKI — the party’s 2022 nominee who lost his bid for the seat by 13 points following reports that he lied about serving in Afghanistan. McCarthy had recruited and endorsed rival CRAIG RIEDEL, who now faces an uphill battle after leaked audio captured the former state representative calling DONALD TRUMP “arrogant.”
- In Nevada’s 3rd district, Gaetz is backing state Sen. ELIZABETH HELGELIEN, a conservative whose politics might be a poor fit for the swing Las Vegas-area district now held by Democrat SUSIE LEE. McCarthy had instead backed state Rep. HEIDI KASAMA.
- And in Illinois’ 12th district, Gaetz has been supportive of DARREN BAILEY, a former state lawmaker and failed 2022 gubernatorial candidate who is seeking to primary GOP Rep. MIKE BOST. McCarthy had headlined fundraisers for Bost and blamed Bailey’s blowout loss to Gov. JB PRITZKER for the GOP’s loss of four Illinois congressional seats last cycle.
Why it matters: The primary fights come as Republicans have sought to avoid ugly interparty faceoffs ahead of the 2024 election. As Madison and Gary note, “candidate quality nearly cost Republicans the House majority in 2022, with some far-right candidates losing key races.” GOP leaders know their slim majority is hanging by a thread — a dynamic that might only worsen if New York manages to redraw its congressional maps and DONALD TRUMP becomes the Republican nominee. What it says about Gaetz: Gaetz scoffed when our colleagues inquired about whether he was seeking to undercut McCarthy’s chosen candidates out of spite for his longtime rival. “He’s old news. MIKE JOHNSON’s speaker now,” Gaetz told them. Maybe so, but his decision to prop up a slew of far-right candidates shows that while the Florida Republican has already claimed McCarthy’s gavel, he’s not done wading into controversy. Indeed, the high-profile Trump ally — who many believe will run for Florida governor next cycle — is only 41 and signaling that he still plans to play a starring role in the GOP’s ongoing civil war. TRUMP’S SECOND-TERM TRADE WAR — Confident that he’s locked down the GOP nomination, Trump is making plans for a sweeping realignment of the nation’s trade policies — one that will once again have the GOP’s free-market cheerleaders cringing. In addition to cracking down on commerce with China, Trump plans to impose a new “universal baseline tariff” on most imports, the NYT’s Charlie Savage, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman report in their latest dive into a potential second-term agenda. The reporters interviewed ROBERT LIGHTHIZER, the former U.S. trade representative who, they say, will play a “key role in a second term.” And while Trump officials did not specify what the universal tariff would look like — including whether it would apply to the two dozen nations who have free trade agreements with the U.S. — Trump has previously floated an across-the-board 10 percent levy. Sound familiar? In some ways it should. In his first term, Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on China sent some Republicans into a tizzy, highlighting a growing split in the party between “fair trade” populists and traditional Republicans. But Trump’s new vision is FAR more expansive. As the NYT writes, his proposed escalation with China would “try to wrench apart the world’s two largest economies, which exchanged some $758 billion in goods and services last year.” And regarding the universal tariff? “Essentially, Mr. Trump’s trade agenda aims at backing the United States away from integration with the global economy and steering the country toward becoming more self-contained: producing a larger share of what it consumes and wielding its might through one-on-one dealings with other countries,” they write. The move would be risky to say the least. While the Trump campaign says it wants to boost U.S. manufacturing, such a strategy would likely mean higher prices for everyday goods, potential job losses and soured relations with key allies. Case in point: The NYT looked at the impacts of one of Trump’s 2018 tariff policies, a levy hike on washing machines: The strategy “created about 1,800 jobs while raising the median prices consumers paid for new washers and dryers by $86 and $92 per unit. That spending added up to about $817,000 per job.” Good Tuesday morning, and Happy Boxing Day. We hope you had a very merry Christmas. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
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