When President Trump proposes a non-conservative policy, his staff and his more faithful supporters often put forth an argument that goes something like, “It’s his strategy so he can get what he wants” or “He’s playing the long game.”

Such has been their response to the president’s tariff proposals.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recently told CNBC that the president is “a lifelong dealmaker” and belittled the effect that China’s proposed tariffs will have on American goods.

Last week on Yellowhammer Radio’s “The Ford Faction,” Dr. Gina Loudon, who is part of President Trump’s Media Advisory Board, reiterated that the tariffs are a strategy, and that they are working.

“South Korea, North Korea, China, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, Mr. President, what can we do? Guess what? That was strategy.”

There has been no such visible benefit. In fact, China and South Korea have punched back hard and Alabama’s farmers and manufacturers are anxious.

Greenville Mayor Dexter McLendon recently told Yellowhammer News about the concern.

“The biggest thing that is facing us right now is a tariff,” he said.

McLendon cited the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, 40 miles north of Greenville. Hyundai is a Korean company.

“If they have to start paying these tariffs and everything, it could affect them,” McLendon said. “So, we’re concerned about that. They’re a big part of our economic development here.”

These defenses of the tariffs are, at their core, based upon an unwitting trust in the president rather than in conservative economic policy.

Moreover, they are demonstrative of how conservative politics under Trump have, for many, become less driven by conservative ideas and more by some kind of abstract, long-game, everything-he-proposes-is-gospel type of approach.

Conservative legislators have been overwhelmingly critical of the tariffs, which should serve as a measure of comfort for those to whom conservative economic principles matter.

@jeremywbeaman is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News