{"id":9321,"date":"2025-05-17T16:20:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T16:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rural-voters-are-key-to-trumps-base-theyre-about-to-pay-the-price-for-his-trade-war\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T16:20:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T16:20:16","slug":"rural-voters-are-key-to-trumps-base-theyre-about-to-pay-the-price-for-his-trade-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/rural-voters-are-key-to-trumps-base-theyre-about-to-pay-the-price-for-his-trade-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Rural voters are key to Trump&#8217;s base. They&#8217;re about to pay the price for his trade war."},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"byline-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/author\/claire-mccaskill-ncpn967501\" tabindex=\"-1\"><picture data-testid=\"picture\"><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-60x60,f_auto,q_auto:best\/newscms\/2019_06\/2742401\/190205-mccaskill-mn-1635.png\" alt height=\"48\" width=\"48\"><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><em>This is an adapted excerpt from the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/deadline-white-house\" target=\"_blank\"><em>May 15<\/em><\/a><em>  episode of &#8220;Deadline: White House.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Walmart, the <a href=\"https:\/\/nrf.com\/research-insights\/top-retailers\/top-100-retailers\/top-100-retailers-2024-list\" target=\"_blank\">largest retailer in the United States<\/a>has confirmed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\">Donald Trump&rsquo;s <\/a>trade war will lead to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/nightly-news\/video\/walmart-says-it-will-have-to-raise-some-prices-as-trade-war-continues-239687749515\" target=\"_blank\">increase in costs for consumers. <\/a>&ldquo;The higher tariffs will result in higher prices,&rdquo; Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said during an earnings call on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible. But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren&rsquo;t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/15\/business\/walmart-earnings-tariffs-consumer.html\" target=\"_blank\">McMillon said.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>We know exactly who these price increases will hurt the most: low-income Americans, especially those who live in<a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/theslice\/how-walmart-became-the-town-square-in-rural-america\" target=\"_blank\"> rural areas.<\/a> Those are also the voters at the heart of Trump&rsquo;s base.<\/p>\n<p>We know exactly who these increases will hurt the most: low-income Americans, especially those who live in rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>Americans have been through rough economic periods before. But this situation is different. In 2020, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/chris-jansing-reports\/watch\/isolation-uncertainty-and-fear-how-the-covid-19-pandemic-fractured-american-society-234105925672\" target=\"_blank\">Covid pandemic <\/a>sent the global economy into a tailspin. With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/ali-velshi\/watch\/2008-financial-crisis-a-shift-in-the-balance-of-power-1299731523815\" target=\"_blank\">the Lehman Brothers meltdown <\/a>in 2008, Americans knew the bad actors in the financial sector were to blame. But this time around, the economic crisis we&rsquo;re facing is the fault of the president of the United States. This is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/top-stories\/latest\/trump-gaslighting-economy-austerity-taxes-tariffs-rcna206280\" target=\"_blank\">Trump&rsquo;s doing.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>That&rsquo;s why my Republican friends on Capitol Hill are so nervous. They know when these prices start going up and when it&rsquo;s felt in the Trump base, they&rsquo;re not going to be able to blame Democrats or Joe Biden. They&rsquo;re not going to be able to blame the financial sector. They&rsquo;re not going to be able to blame a pandemic. The only people to blame are Trump and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/deadline-white-house\/watch\/-political-malpractice-republicans-hide-as-trump-s-tariff-policies-start-to-impact-consumers-238937669958\" target=\"_blank\">Republicans who enabled him.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If the Republicans in Congress wanted to help the voters at the heart of their base, they would roll back these tariffs and put the president in check. Instead, they&rsquo;re making sure that everyone who voted for Trump will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/morning-joe\/watch\/tariffs-are-causing-devastating-effects-senator-rebukes-trump-s-trade-war-239649349735\" target=\"_blank\">feel the impact of his trade war <\/a>on their next trip to Walmart.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div data-activity-map=\"expanded-byline-article-bottom\">\n<div data-testid=\"byline-thumbnail\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/author\/claire-mccaskill-ncpn967501\" tabindex=\"-1\"><picture data-testid=\"picture\"><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_focal-60x60,f_auto,q_auto:best\/newscms\/2019_06\/2742401\/190205-mccaskill-mn-1635.png\" alt height=\"48\" width=\"48\"><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span data-testid=\"byline-name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/author\/claire-mccaskill-ncpn967501\">Claire McCaskill<\/a><\/span><span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/clairecmc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri.&nbsp;She is currently an BLN and NBC News political analyst.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Allison Detzel<\/p>\n<p>contributed<\/p>\n<p>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/top-stories\/latest\/walmart-raise-prices-trump-tariffs-rcna207351\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is an adapted excerpt from the May 15 episode of &#8220;Deadline: White House.&#8221; Walmart, the largest retailer in the United Stateshas confirmed that Donald Trump&rsquo;s trade war will lead to an increase in costs for consumers. &ldquo;The higher tariffs will result in higher prices,&rdquo; Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said during an earnings call on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}