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While visiting the swing state of Ohio on Thursday, President Donald Trump said he has reimposed some tariffs on Canadian aluminum and signed an executive order that requires the U.S. government purchase “essential” drugs from American companies.
Trump said Canadian aluminum producers have broken a promise to “not flood our country with exports and kill all our aluminum jobs.” U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer has advised him that “this step to reimpose tariffs is absolutely necessary to defend our aluminum industry,” the president added, as he delivered a speech at a Whirlpool Corp. WHR, -1.07% manufacturing plant in Clyde, Ohio.
“We’re reasserting American economic independence,” Trump also said. “To this end, a short time ago, I signed a new executive order to ensure that when it comes to essential medicines, we buy American.”
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters ahead of the signing that the U.S. is “dangerously over-dependent on foreign nations” for “essential medicines” as well as medical supplies and equipment.
“A key part of this process will be for the FDA to actually identify the list of essential medicines and countermeasures and critical inputs covered,” Navarro said of the Food and Drug Administration, in a remark that suggests specifics are still being worked out.
The moves look likely to resonate with the president’s core supporters ahead of the November election. He also recently has signed executive orders that aim to limit federal agencies’ use of foreign workers and reduce drug prices.
The order on essential drugs comes amid probes into a $765 million government loan to Eastman Kodak Co. KODK, +8.12% that will help the company make drug ingredients at U.S. factories.
Reports last week said the decision on Canadian aluminum was coming.
CAMPAIGN-STYLE SPEECH TOUCHING ON MARKETS
While in Ohio before going to the Whirlpool factory, Trump gave a rally-like speech in Cleveland in which he blasted presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, echoing past comments that he’s made about how the stock market SPX, +0.64% DJIA, +0.68% could react to a Biden presidency.
“You will have a crash in the markets,” Trump said.
In a RealClearPolitics moving average of polls focused on Ohio, Biden leads Trump by 2.3 percentage points. Trump and his campaign have said pollsters are getting the 2020 race wrong as surveys mostly have showed Biden ahead in battleground states and nationwide.
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine had planned to meet with the president during his visit, but instead he was due to quarantine for 14 days after testing positive for the coronavirus.
OTHER ORDER POSSIBLE AS STIMULUS TALKS DRAG ON
The president tweeted that, as he was departing for Ohio, he had directed his staff to “continue working” on a possible executive order on a payroll-tax cut, eviction protections, unemployment-insurance extensions and student-loan repayments. He later told reporters the order could come “probably tomorrow afternoon” or the next morning, noting that a legislative deal on another big coronavirus relief package was still possible as talks on Capitol Hill continued.
Related:Trump suggests freezing evictions and payroll-tax collection through executive orders
REACTION TO NRA NEWS
Trump on Thursday also briefly weighed in on the Democratic New York attorney general’s move to shut down the National Rifle Association, saying it’s “a terrible thing.” Gun makers’ stocks SWBI, -1.38% RGR, -0.72% closed with losses after the announcement from Attorney General Letitia James, while the broad market gained.
