“Last thing we need”: GOP panic grows as Trump team can’t get its story straight on tariffs

Republican lawmakers are very concerned about the president Donald Trump A long -term plan and market approach to imposing a tariff between 10 and 50 percent on all American imports.

Amid a bloodbath in Wall Street, the members of the Republican Party in Congress are concerned about increasing the cost imposed on many goods You can get back In future races.

The former majority leader of the Senate Mitch McConnell, R-ky. Historically, one from President Trump The largest empowerment Despite their hostility, the plan was called a “tax on Americans working every day” on Thursday.

“I always warned, the definitions are a bad policy, and commercial wars with our partners hurt the workers more,” McConnell He said on social media. “The goods made in America will be more expensive for manufacturing, and ultimately for consumers to buy, with a higher broad tariff. While Americans are tightening their belts, we do well to avoid pain policies.”

McConnell, one of the four Senate members of the Republican Party joins Democrats to vote against definitions on Canada earlier this week, also worried that the customs tariff for American allies will harm the country’s interests, adding that “the last thing we need is to choose battles with friends we must work with to protect from predators in China and the word.”

Senator Jerry Moran agreed, R. Kan. , Saying that his voters prefer a gradual approach more targeted in the trade budget.

“The idea of ​​a tariff for the theater equality has some merit and some support. But I believe that most Kansais will say,” Let’s do this in a more gradual way, “Moran. The hill said. “Most of Kansais, including agriculture, which is very affected, and I think they were expecting something less dramatic.”

The farmers in Kansas and Wall Street seemed to be concerned about the list of huge and arbitrary tariffs on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average It suffers from the largest decrease for one day since March 2020 the next day.

In addition to the shock of the stock market, public opinion is compatible with what the former vice president Mike Pines It is called “the largest tax increase in peace time in the history of the United States” on Wednesday Publishing to X.

A Reuters/IPSOS poll Earlier this week, I found that 53 % of Americans believe that the customs tariff would harm more than it will benefit, with seven out of every 10 of the price duties at the local level.

“Liberation Day”, which fell on the Nasdak Stock Exchange by 6 % on Thursday, was condemned by the two parties. Some Republicans are even trying to take power to place duties in trade from the executive authority. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, presented a The draft law of the two parties On Thursday to put some handrails on Trump’s ability to impose customs duties, including the president’s demand to obtain the approval of Congress within 60 days on a new tariff.

Even Republicans who are not completely ready to curb the Trump tariff force admit that he may have taken it away. Senator John Kennedy, R does not. – Who voted on the measure of unlike Canada’s duties – CNN told the President’s account that the customs tariff will turn the manufacturing again in the long run not a safe bet.

“In the long run, it’s right. But in the long run, we are all dead,” Kennedy NewsMax said Wednesday. “Nobody knows the effect of these definitions. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Inside the White House Trump, no one can get the story straight. On Thursday, Jeff Stein from the Washington Post, Minister of Commerce Howard Lootnick, Adviser to the President Peter Navarro Trump gave himself three contradictory answers within a few hours on Thursday about whether the manufactured trade war is a trick for a leverage or an attempt to liberate America from foreign trade forever.

All within a few hours -> Howard Lottenic: “I don’t think there is any opportunity that Trump will back away from his definition” Peter Navarro: “This is not negotiations” Donald Trump: “The definitions give us a great power to negotiate.

Jeff Stein (@Jeffstein.bsky.social)) April 3, 2025 at 5:46 pm

This uncertainty is to give even the most Golo Maga in the Capitol Hill some stop. On Thursday, Senator Ted Cruz, R-TEXAS, told Larry Kodlow of Fox Business on Thursday that “the high tariff in permanent” could spell disasters.

“If the result is our commercial partners, they raise their definitions … I don’t think this will be a good economic policy. I am not a fan of definitions,” Kudlo said. “The definitions are a tax on consumers, and I am not a fan of raising taxes on American consumers. So I hope these definitions are short -term.”

However, as democrats Trying to impose votes In every room to review the emergency ads issued by the Trump administration on Tuesday to gain the authority to impose definitions, a few Republicans indicated whether they were ready to calm the tariff plan for President Trump publicly.