GOP strategist warns Trump that his voters 'can only feel the pain for so long'

Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton on Tuesday warned President Donald Trump that a protracted trade war with China would only hurt his own voters and that there was only so much they could take.

Appearing on CNN, Singleton said that while Trump voters understood the need to make trade more fair, the president needed to be more considered in his approach, which so far has consisted of launching an economic war against nearly every nation on Earth.

"I do believe that there is some argument for the president to... make trade fair for the United States and our trading partners," he said. "But I think we've got to be more strategic. I would agree that at some point, even Republicans in the base are going to say, 'Okay, Mr. President, we're with you, but we can only feel the pain for so long.' And so I think the onus is on the president there to communicate that to the American people."

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Earlier in the panel, Democratic strategist Paul Begala cast doubt that Trump could ever thread such a needle and suggested that it was time for Congress to simply take away the president's powers to unilaterally slap tariffs on foreign goods.

"Trump's economic numbers are underwater, which is a catastrophe for him, but more immediately, Republicans on the Hill own this," he said. "Because there's a movement going with Democrats and, increasingly, a couple of Republicans to claw back the power that the Constitution gave to the Congress to control these tariffs, not to Trump. So every Republican is going to have to vote or declare, I want to take back away from Trump this power of the tariff. And I think Democrats have a huge advantage on that."

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