{"id":6503,"date":"2025-04-09T05:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T05:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=6503"},"modified":"2025-04-09T05:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T05:34:10","slug":"republicans-are-going-public-with-their-growing-worries-about-trumps-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/?p=6503","title":{"rendered":"Republicans are going public with their growing worries about Trump’s tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON — <\/span>Manufacturers struggling to make long-term plans. Farmers facing retaliation from Chinese buyers. U.S. households burdened with higher prices. <\/p>\n

Republican senators are confronting the Trump administration with those worries and many more as they fret about the economic impact of the president’s sweeping tariff strategy<\/a> that went into effect Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In a Senate hearing and interviews with reporters this week, Republican skepticism of President Donald Trump’s<\/a> policies ran unusually high. While GOP lawmakers made sure to direct their concern at Trump’s aides and advisers<\/a> \u2014 particularly U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who appeared before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday \u2014 it still amounted to a rare Republican break from a president they have otherwise championed. <\/p>\n

Lawmakers had reason to worry: the stock market has been in a volatile tumble<\/a> for days and economists are warning that the plans could lead to a recession<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?\u201d Republican Sen. Thom Tillis<\/a> told Greer as he pressed for an answer on which Trump aide to hold accountable if there is an economic downturn.<\/p>\n

Tillis’ frustration was aimed at the across-the-board tariff strategy that could potentially hamstring U.S. manufacturers who are currently dependent on materials like aluminum and steel from China. His home state of North Carolina, where he is up for reelection next year, has attracted thousands of foreign firms looking to invest in the state’s manufacturing industries.<\/p>\n

Ever wary of crossing Trump, Republicans engaged in a delicate two-step of criticizing the rollout of the tariffs then shifting to praise for the president’s economic vision. In the afternoon, Tillis in a Senate floor speech said that the \u201cpresident is right in challenging other nations who have for decades abused their relationship with the United States,” yet went on to question who in the White House was thinking through the long-term economic effects of the sweeping tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tillis even allowed that Trump’s trade strategy could still turn out to be effective, but said there is a short window to show that it is worth the higher prices and layoffs that will burden workers.<\/p>\n

For his part, Greer emphasized to the committee that the U.S. was engaged in negotiations with other countries but that \u201cthe trade deficit has been decades in the making, and it’s not going to be solved overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican leaders in Congress<\/a>, as well as a sizeable chunk of lawmakers, have emphasized that Trump needs time to implement his strategy. They’ve mostly rejected the idea of putting a check on Trump’s tariff power, but it is clear that anxiety is growing among rank-and-file Republicans about what’s ahead.<\/p>\n

Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, said there is a company in his state that had spent \u201cmillions of dollars” moving its parts production from China to Vietnam. But now that Vietnam is facing steep tariffs, the business is unable to move forward with negotiating prices with retailers.<\/p>\n

Lankford pressed Greer for a timeline for negotiations, but the trade representative responded, \u201cWe don\u2019t have any particular timeline. The outcome is more important than setting something artificially for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trade agreements between countries typically take months or even years to work out and often require the parties to navigate through a host of legal, economic and business issues. Still, Republicans said they were encouraged by the indications that Trump is entering into negotiations with other nations.<\/p>\n

Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, said at the committee hearing that he was \u201cvery encouraged\u201d by news of trade negotiations and attributed a momentary upward tick in the stock market to \u201chope that these tariffs are a means and not solely an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told Greer, “Who pays these high tariffs? It will be the consumer. I\u2019m worried about the inflationary effect. I\u2019m worried if there is a trade war that we\u2019re going to have markets shutting down for American farmers, ranchers and manufacturers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other GOP lawmakers contended that the pain was worth bearing. Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said the president is on the right track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pain, but it\u2019s going to be,\u201d he said. \u201cThe president will make the right call. He\u2019s doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, traditional Republicans were looking for ways to push back on Trump’s tariff plan. <\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a senior Republican, has introduced a bipartisan bill to give Congress the power to review and approve of new tariffs, and Republican members in the House were also working to gain support for a similar bill. Such legislation would allow Congress to claw back some of its constitutional power over tariff policy, which has been almost completely handed over to the president in recent decades through legislation.<\/p>\n

But the White House has already indicated that Trump would veto the bill, and both Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have said they are not interested in bringing it up for a vote.<\/p>\n

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican closely aligned with Trump, said on social media that the bill was a bad idea because \u201cCongress moves at the pace of a tortoise running a race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why Congress gave this authority to the president to begin with is because the ability to pivot,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

But the president’s unclear messaging<\/a> has also left lawmakers only guessing as they try to decipher which advisers and aides hold sway in the White House. <\/p>\n

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said that as he\u2019s received calls from the business community in his state, he\u2019s had no answers for them besides telling them the prospects for the economy are uncertain. The communication from the president\u2019s aides has often been conflicting, Kennedy said even as he voiced support for Trump\u2019s long-term goals.<\/p>\n

Kennedy told reporters, \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way to double or triple your tariffs on the world when you’re the wealthiest country in all of human history without being somewhat shambolic.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — Manufacturers struggling to make long-term plans. Farmers facing retaliation from Chinese buyers. U.S. households burdened with higher prices. Republican senators are confronting the Trump administration with those worries and many more as they fret about the economic impact of the president’s sweeping tariff strategy that went into effect Wednesday. In a Senate hearing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6505,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6503\/revisions\/6505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}