Republican leaders have been urging Trump, both publicly and privately, to spend the year selling the merits of the new tax law, which permanently slashed corporate tax rates and included big rate cuts for wealthy individuals, alongside more modest cuts for the middle class. Instead, Trump has aggressively pursued tariffs that may initially satisfy his supporters' desire to crack down on China and other nations, but risk sparking a trade war that could devastate some of the American industries that Trump has pledged to protect.