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Koch network meeting kicks off with anti-protectionism message from Charles Koch

COLORADO SPRINGS — In 2003, billionaire industrialist Charles Koch gathered a small group of like-minded business leaders to oppose increased federal spending and steel tariffs under the George W. Bush administration.

Koch, 82, is now ringing the alarms again 15 years later at this weekend’s meeting, which has grown to include more than 500 major donors to his influential network, amid the brewing trade war under President Trump.

The twice-annual confab kicked off Saturday afternoon with a video message released to reporters in which an impassioned Koch decries protectionism and those who support it.

“They’re doing whatever they can to close themselves off from the new, hold on to the past and prevent change,” Koch says in a video. “This is a natural tendency, but it’s a destructive one because when people act in protectionist ways, they erect barriers, which makes everyone worse off.”