Trump’s Mixed Signals on Export-Import Bank Leave Door Open for Conservatives

(Heritate Foundation, Washington, 6 March 2017) For the last five years, conservative lawmakers have rallied behind efforts to close the Export-Import Bank, and were successful in 2015, albeit briefly, when the bank’s charter lapsed for the first time in its history. But now, with President Donald Trump in the White House, conservative lawmakers may have a chance to shutter the bank for good, or at least keep it operating with limited authority. There is just one problem: Trump has sent mixed signals on where he stands on the Export-Import Bank, and though his budget director and advisers oppose the agency, Trump signaled early in his administration he could be swayed.