Is China Really Meddling in U.S. Elections?

When U.S. President Donald Trump slapped steel tariffs on the European Union this spring, Brussels responded with what it hoped would be a politically painful set of retaliatory measures—tariffs targeting bourbon made in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s backyard and Harley-Davidson motorcycles from House Speaker Paul Ryan’s home state. It was a clear message to Trump’s two most powerful allies on Capitol Hill.

But at the time, no one in the Trump administration complained that the Europeans were meddling in the U.S. political process. Yet when China responded to its own set of Trump tariffs by purchasing a China Daily insert in the Des Moines Register in Iowa that highlighted the mutual benefits of U.S.-China trade, a whole new front in the trade war opened up. Speaking before the United Nations Security Council last week, Trump accused the Chinese of attempting to undermine Republican candidates in the November elections.

“They do not want me or us to win, because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade,” Trump declared.

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