American consumers and the stock market are not the only groups seeking relief from President Donald Trump’s whipsaw trade actions; Senate Republicans also hope to find an exit off the Trump tariff train.
Trump appears uninterested in stopping the tariff steamroller. At midnight, the administration is set to levy an additional 50 percent tariff on China if China does not retract its 34 percent retaliatory tariff. That would boost the tariffs on Chinese goods to an extraordinary 104 percent.
During a hearing at the Senate Finance Committee with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina warned that ultimately one person has to own the blame if projects go awry as he referenced his time in management consulting.
So “whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” Tillis asked Greer.
But Tillis made sure to say that Trump and Vice President JD Vance would not be to blame for the president’s across-the-board tariffs.
By far the most endangered incumbent Republican senator, Tillis hails from a state that exports not just chemicals, but also pork from the state’s hog farming industry.
“Farmers, everyone involved in the food supply chain, they’re concerned right now,” he told The Independent. “And some businesses are anticipating a dip in demand. That could affect hiring. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who hails from a state that borders Canada and who has never been shy about criticizing the Trump administration’s actions, had told The Independent right before the president made his “liberation day” announcement last week that she didn’t know if the tariffs would actually go into effect. “So hold on tight,” she added.
Now with the tariffs in effect, Murkowski didn’t mince words.
“They haven’t even got into place, isn’t that crazy?” she told The Independent on Monday evening. But “even announcing them has had an impact on the economy. I mean, look at what’s going on within the markets. Tariffs are a pretty weighty instrument.”
Last week, Murkowski, along with Senator Susan Collins of Maine, and Kentucky Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell joined Democrats to pass a resolution to roll back Trump’s tariffs against Canada.
In addition, Senator Chuck Grassley, the most senior Republican and a farmer from Iowa, introduced legislation with Washington Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, that would require a president to notify Congress about tariffs, which would have to be passed by Congress within 60 days, or they would expire.
“You’re hearing from a lot of constituents about something that’s 70 percent of the economy, you know, consumer, consumption, and they just threw a whole wrench in it at a time when we had high inflation,” Cantwell told The Independent.
Many Republicans are still in a wait-and-see mode on Trump’s tariffs. Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said she would not sign onto the Grassley-Cantwell bill.
