Trump's tariff wars forge rare bipartisan alliance in Kentucky as bourbon makers fear escalation

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — President Donald Trump's blunt-force use of tariffs has forged a rare bipartisan alliance among Kentucky's top leaders — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul — in lamenting brewing trade wars that could stagger the bourbon sector.

Bourbon distillers who invested time and money cultivating markets in Europe and Canada are now worried about becoming “collateral damage” in escalating tit-for-tat disputes. Trump's saber-rattling intensified this week when he threatened a 200% tariff on European wine, Champagne and other spirits if the European Union goes forward with a planned tariff on American whiskey.

In solidly Republican Kentucky, where Trump has dominated since his first White House election in 2016, the governor and senators have been in lockstep in their disapproval of the near daily drama regarding tariffs. Beshear, who is seen as a potential presidential contender in 2028, has been especially critical.

“President Trump started this trade war, and we all knew that if he did, other countries would have to respond,” Beshear said recently. “What they’re going to do is raise prices on the American people. A president who was elected to lower prices is actively taking steps that are raising prices.”

McConnell, the former longtime Republican Senate leader, said millions of American jobs – including thousands tied to bourbon production and auto manufacturing in Kentucky – depend on policies that preserve free and fair trade.

“I’m all for pushing back on predatory trade practices and leveling the playing field for American producers, but I’m not a fan of tariffs,’’ McConnell said. “At the end of the day, tariffs drive up the cost of the goods and services we all rely on, and American consumers pay the price.”

Paul has called the tariff wars a big mistake that hurt his home state.

“From bourbon distillers to car manufacturers to makers of fences to the builders of homes, to our farmers, nobody in Kentucky is coming up to me and say, ‘please put tariffs on things,’” Paul said.

“We need to back away from this,” the senator added.

Kentucky set a record for exports in 2024 with $47.7 billion of its products shipped globally, up 18.7% from the previous year, Beshear said recently. Aerospace products and parts remained the Bluegrass State's top export in 2024. Motor vehicles and pharmaceuticals were other leading exports.

But it's a world-renowned Kentucky product, bourbon, that's become a prime target for retaliation. In Canada, some liquor stores have cleared American spirits from their shelves. Across the Atlantic, the EU will raise tariffs on American beef, poultry, bourbon and motorcycles, peanut butter and jeans.

Those actions pose an immediate threat to an American-made success story, built on the growing worldwide taste for bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and other products. The EU is by far the biggest international market for American whiskeys. In the last three years when tariffs were suspended, American whiskey exports to the EU surged nearly 60%, climbing from $439 million in 2021 to $699 million in 2024, according to the Distilled Spirits Council.

For Kentucky craft distiller Tom Bard, trade wars have temporarily cut off opportunities to grow his brands in eastern Europe and Canada. New purchase orders are on hold amid back-and-forth tariffs.

“We’re about to start momentum and now it’s basically been stopped in its tracks,” said Bard, who with his wife, Kim, own The Bard Distillery in Muhlenberg County in western Kentucky.