© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Politically Speaking: Sorting out the impact of Trump’s tariffs — and a possible minimum-wage hike

Attendees listen as President Donald Trump speaks at a Granite City Works warehouse on July 26, 2018.
File photo I Carolina Hidalgo | St. Louis Public Radio
Attendees listen as President Donald Trump speaks at a Granite City Works warehouse on July 26, 2018.

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Rachel Lippmann round up some of the week’s biggest developments in the 2018 elections.

One of the topics Rosenbaum and Lippmann take a look at this week is President Donald Trump’s aluminum and steel tariffs — and how they may affect Missouri’s U.S. Senate contest.

Trump has contended that the tariffs will end up helping domestic steel and aluminum production — and get other countries to agree to new trade deals. But both Republicans and Democrats contend the move is hurting agricultural commodities, especially after countries like China retaliated.

That’s one of the reasons why both U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., have spoken out against the tariffs. McCaskill’s GOP opponent, Attorney General Josh Hawley, has said he supports the president’s goal of using tariffs to get better trade deals.

And in our weekly election-analysis feature, Lippmann and Rosenbaum take a closer look at Proposition B — which would raise Missouri’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2023. This push to raise the wage floor took hold recently in St. Louis and Kansas City — and may have a good chance of passing statewide if organized opposition doesn’t emerge before November.

Follow Jason on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Rachel on Twitter: @rlippmann

Music: “Jack the Lion” by Harvey Danger

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Since entering the world of professional journalism in 2006, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than four years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon.