While Trump Wages Trade War, Pence Tries To Ease GOP Anxiety
Published: June 13th, 2019

While Trump wages trade war, Pence tries to ease GOP anxiety In this June 6, 2019, photo, Vice President Mike Pence meets with attendees at JLS Automation in York, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

YORK, Pa. (AP) — A group of Pennsylvania manufacturers surrounded Mike Pence as he offered his standard greeting from President Donald Trump. The response was underwhelming.

“When I told him I was in the Keystone State, I think he sounded just a little bit jealous,” the vice president said to a few audible groans and tepid applause.

But when Pence turned to his assignment for the trip last week to York, Pennsylvania — selling the administration’s new trade deal with Mexico and Canada — the group warmed up. By the time he got to the part about calling on Congress to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement , his audience cheered him on.

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Pence is on a quiet mission to advance the administration’s top legislative priority for the year — the troubled trade deal — and, with it, just maybe hold together the fraying Republican coalition ahead of the next one. As Trump wagers on a trade war with China and threats of another with Mexico, Pence has been traveling the country trying to build support for a free-trade deal. While his boss promotes the power of tariffs, Pence has been in places like Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Lebanon, Indiana, speaking about the benefits of lowering them.

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