Trump can’t keep tariffs on China and win a second term, says researcher

U.S. President Donald Trump can either be a “tariff president” or a “two-term president,” a public policy expert said Tuesday. It remains relatively undetermined to what extent U.S.-China trade tensions have weighed on the American economy, but any continued damage could tip the scales in the upcoming presidential election, according to David Firestein, executive director of the University of Texas at Austin’s China Public Policy Center. That is, if Trump continues imposing tariffs, he may lose the slim electoral edge that won him the White House in the 2016 election, Firestein predicted.