Gunmaker’s Lobbying Shows How Trump’s Tariffs Changed Game (1)

When President Donald Trump slapped a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports this summer, executives at Taurus Holdings Inc. did what many others have done: They turned to a Trump-aligned lobbyist named Brian Ballard.

Taurus makes handguns and rifles, marketing itself as “the industry’s undisputed price leader.” It exports most of its products from Brazil to the US. So a tariff-generated price hike of 50% for American buyers loomed as an existential threat, and the company needed help in Washington.

Through Ballard’s firm and others with close ties to Trump administration figures, Taurus and other gunmakers are now trying to ...