Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called Monday for ending China’s preferred trade status and suggested he might replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as part of an economic agenda aimed at reviving his flagging presidential campaign.
In a speech outlining his economic plan, DeSantis also promised to boost economic growth and make permanent full expensing, a part of the tax code which tries to encourage companies to invest in the US. He said he wants to increase domestic energy production and expand disclosures by banks.
“We have to restore the economic sovereignty of this country and take back control of our economy from China. The abusive relationship, the asymmetric relationship between our two countries, must come to an end,” DeSantis said before a crowd of over 100 people at a warehouse in early-voting New Hampshire.
DeSantis’s economic agenda is a mix of traditional Republican economic orthodoxy like lower taxes and less regulation, with populist themes of being tougher on China and easing Americans’ student loan debts. He has said he wants to boost US growth to 3% each year. DeSantis aims to expand his message beyond touting his accomplishments in Florida and speak to a broader audience.
The Florida governor is seeking to reboot his campaign at the insistence of donors worried about a cash crunch and sliding poll numbers. Contributors have urged DeSantis to pivot to topics such as President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy and away from the culture-war issues that allowed him to build a national profile but have failed to help him chip away at Donald Trump’s growing lead in the GOP primary.
A New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday highlights the challenge for DeSantis: 54% of likely GOP voters backed Trump, compared to 17% for DeSantis. Trump’s 37 percentage-point lead over DeSantis, who has consistently placed a distant second, is the largest in the survey so far.
Still in a speech focused on the economy, DeSantis repeatedly highlighted his Florida record and appeared most animated discussing his fights over cultural issues. He hailed the US Supreme Court’s ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions, Florida reopening schools during the Covid-19 pandemic, and efforts to restrict the state’s pensions from considering environmental, social and governance investment strategies.
Read more: Trump Widens Lead Over Flagging DeSantis Among Likely GOP Voters
But that approach may have limits as DeSantis looks to close the gap with Trump. The New York Times poll found 38% of potential Republican primary voters would support a candidate who “promises to fight corporations that promote ‘woke’ left ideology,” while 52% said they would back a candidates who says “government should stay out of deciding what corporations can support.”
A centerpiece of DeSantis’s economic agenda is a harsher stance toward China, including banning goods made with stolen intellectual property, imposing restrictions on US companies sharing critical technologies and barring the sale of assets such as farm land to Chinese Communist Party members or affiliates, according to a copy of the proposal.
“The elite sold a bill of goods when it came to China,” said DeSantis.
“They said if you granted China special trading status and put them in the World Trade Organization, that China would become more democratic,” he added. “China has become more authoritarian, more powerful and more ambitious.”
Ahead of his remarks, DeSantis’s rivals, including former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, expanded their own plans for countering the world’s second—largest economy.
Central Bank
DeSantis also vowed to appoint a Federal Reserve chair who “will focus on maintaining a stable dollar instead of the political pressures of the day,” implying he would replace Powell, whose term isn’t up until May 2026.
“The Fed needs to have a limited role in this country. It’s not accountable to the electorate,” DeSantis said. “I will appoint a chairman of the Federal Reserve who understands that.”
The governor said he would work make permanent tax cuts passed during Trump’s tenure. DeSantis also pledged to undo all of Biden’s executive orders as well as his efforts to push Americans to buy more electric vehicles.
“Biden’s job-crippling and ideological regulations and executive orders will be reversed by me on day one,” he said.
The agenda also proposes boosting apprenticeship programs and making universities responsible for the loans their students accrue while allowing Americans to discharge student loans through bankruptcy — an effort to draw a contrast with Biden’s push to cancel student debt. Biden’s proposal, which would have provided relief for more than 40 million people were tossed by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
In recent weeks, DeSantis has fired more than one-third of his campaign staff, curbed travel to focus on fund raisers and early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire and increased his interactions with the national press after months of his staff ridiculing and shunning reporters.
Democrats were quick to cast DeSantis’s agenda as extreme.
“Floridians are begging him to address the catastrophic economic failures he’s left them, including some of the fastest-rising housing costs in the country, skyrocketing property insurance rates, and exorbitant health care costs. At the same time, DeSantis has lined the pockets of Florida’s wealthiest and biggest corporations with tax giveaways,” said Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.
(Updates with additional details on speech, polling in paragraphs 7-8)
