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The White House and Republican leaders have blunted growing momentum for several efforts to slow down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff regime, even as global economic chaos continues.
In quick succession on Monday, the GOP’s senior leaders clamped down on the bipartisan Trade Review Act, which would require Congress to vote on new presidential tariffs within 60 days. Trump’s White House issued a veto threat that said the bill “would dangerously hamper the president’s authority,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Trump deserves “latitude” on the issue, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune declared that the bill doesn’t have a “future” in Congress.
Seven Senate Republicans had already backed the measure, led by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and a companion House bill was coming from Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb. But after several days of growing support from Republicans, the quick action by the White House, Thune and Johnson appeared to put the bill on ice.
“I don’t think a lot of folks believed that was moving towards becoming a law. I think it was more of a statement by some to say, ‘this tariff piece is different,‘” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Semafor.
Lankford, the No. 5 GOP leader, said he didn’t consider signing on to it “because I don’t think it’s going to become law.” Several Republicans agreed on Monday evening after Trump’s veto threat, despite another wild day of stock market gyration as investors panic over the tariffs.
It’s a signal that Republican leaders’ jobs aren’t just about passing Trump’s agenda at the moment — they’re also safeguarding that agenda from potential critics in his own party. That’s a delicate task, given the economic warning signs and louder recession forecasts from Wall Street. But so far, tariff critics in the typically pro-free-trade congressional GOP have no viable path to clawing back tariff power from the president.
The biggest flashpoint so far in the tariff battle came when the Senate approved a resolution overturning Trump’s tariffs on Canada last week. Under ordinary circumstances, that proposal might have been able to pass the House; however, Republican leaders in the lower chamber already approved language earlier this year that makes it much more difficult for rank-and-file members to force a vote.
“You all need to be asking the House how they could possibly forbid this from happening,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. “The House really ought to vote on what we passed the other day.”
Paul said that “without question” Johnson had ceded too much power to the president, adding that even if Trump is issuing veto threats, “it doesn’t mean the battles aren’t worth having.” Others had a different view.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said “there’s no way to pass a veto-proof bill. And that doesn’t do anything to prevent the president on the front end from doing tariffs.” He added, referring to the timetable in the Grassley-Cantwell bill: “My hope is this will be over long before 60 days expires.”
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Paul said he’d consider supporting the Trade Review Act if it ever came to the Senate floor, though he favored a more aggressive approach because he doesn’t want to “acknowledge that any power should be in the presidency for tariffs.”
He also said he would huddle with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who led the effort to fight Trump’s Canada tariffs, to discuss whether they could target more of Trump’s national emergency declarations.
A future Paul-Kaine effort to target Trump’s broad-based tariffs might pass the Senate in the near future, but not with the sort of margins that would be needed to overturn a Trump veto. As for the Trade Review Act, Thune said there will likely be conversations about it within the GOP but that most senators are “watching and waiting to see and know what the ultimate policy implementation will be with respect for tariffs.”
Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said he had not yet reviewed the bill.
Grassley himself said he hadn’t yet had an opportunity to push party leaders for a vote on his bill, but he made clear he’s using the moment to press for a reversal of Congress’ long-running willingness to cede its constitutional trade authority to the White House.
“You talk about tariffs any other time — when it comes up, you never get any attention. The president has brought tariffs to the surface, and it gives me a chance to correct the mistakes of the past,” Grassley said. “Congress ought to be very jealous about its power.”
Still, the unavoidable question in the Senate is: How many days of stock market losses will the GOP be able to withstand before taking action? The answer at the moment seems to be, at least a few more.
That’s because Republicans seem to think the trade-induced economic malaise could go away just as quickly as it came, if Trump can renegotiate some deals with the dozens of countries his administration said have come running to them to cut deals.
“Seems to me like he’s getting a positive reaction from our trading partners, who seem to be eager to go to zero on tariffs,” Cornyn said.
Burgess’s view
Republican leaders are betting they can hold the line while Trump works on new trade deals that could resuscitate the stock market and hold down projected cost increases for consumers.
In the short-term, it’s not a bad wager: Both chambers of Congress are about to leave town for two weeks of recess — an eternity in Trump’s trade wars.
If lawmakers return to Washington in late April without a resolution, though, it’ll get harder to keep Republicans from joining efforts like the Trade Review Act or a future resolution from Paul and Kaine to stop Trump’s tariffs.
Even if they do, a veto-proof majority on anything tariff-related seems far away.
Room for Disagreement
Democratic leaders are clearly trying to drive a wedge between Republicans and Trump when it comes to tariffs.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that Thune “has a responsibility to listen to American families worried about the price of groceries, worried about their retirement.”
“The Republican leader should make passing tariff legislation the top priority of the Senate this week,” Schumer added. “Leader Thune has a decision to make: Side with Donald Trump and his destructive policies, or side with the American people.”
Notable
- Trump is threatening more tariffs on China, per the Associated Press.
- The markets are so eager for good news that investors are falling for fake tweets, as NPR reported.