President Donald Trump hopes his “Liberation Day” tariffs will boost U.S. manufacturing and free consumers from reliance on foreign markets. But he might just be liberating Democrats from indecision about how to make their case to the American people.
“The complete incompetence and carelessness around classified information put us on offense last week for the first time,” Sen. Mark Warner told NOTUS on Tuesday. “Combined with the effect of these tariffs, with real jobs being lost, I think this is the beginning of the unraveling.”
Trump plans on Wednesday to slap tariffs on imports from even more of America’s trading partners even though U.S. companies and farmers are already reeling from his trade wars. Democrats believe the president is offering them an easy political opening.
“I’m not sure Liberation Day will go down as Liberation Day,” Warner said. “I hope it doesn’t go down as the stock equivalent of Black Wednesday.”
Since Republicans won unified control of the government in November, Democrats have agonized over how to communicate effectively and win elections again. Many Democratic lawmakers agree that high prices hurt Kamala Harris’ presidential chances last year, and they expect tariffs to hurt Trump’s standing for the same reasons.
While Republicans instinctively line up behind Trump, Democrats are positioning themselves as defenders of small businesses and American consumers.
“We need to stand strong against a tax increase — the largest tax increase in American history — on consumers,” Sen. Tim Kaine, who has introduced a measure to roll back Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products, told reporters on Tuesday.
Trump has already imposed additional tariffs on most products from Canada, Mexico and China, which are some of America’s closest trading partners. He’s also planning duties on foreign automobiles. He is set to announce new “Liberation Day” tariffs Wednesday afternoon, the details of which aren’t yet clear.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said during a press conference Tuesday morning that Trump’s trade wars are increasing the chances that the economy could plunge into a recession at some point in the next year.
“They’ve not taken a single step toward bringing down the high cost of living,” Aguilar said.
Republicans are hearing from companies in their districts that are navigating higher prices and uncertainty thanks to Trump’s trade moves. But most GOP lawmakers say they are firmly in Trump’s corner. House Speaker Mike Johnson had a simple response this week to the threat of new tariffs: “Look, you have to trust the president’s instincts on the economy,” he said during a press conference.
Rep. Tom Cole made a similar case in an interview with NOTUS, saying “it’s a major shift in policy,” but a good one.
“He has enormous political capital, and he’s spending it. And that’s what he ought to do with it,” Cole told NOTUS. “It doesn’t do any good if you don’t use it for something. And at least the president’s using it for something he believes in and thinks will ultimately make the country stronger and American workers more prosperous.”
Even as he defended Trump’s plan, Cole seemed to recognize it will come with some pain: “He’s warned us it’s going to take some time, and it’s not going to be easy,” Cole said of the president’s tariffs. But “if he’s willing to run the risk, then I’m willing to run it with him.”
Sen. Josh Hawley likewise defended Trump. “I’m for anything that will bring back jobs,” he told reporters.
Democrats are planning to bring Kaine’s measure to end tariffs on Canadian products for a vote on Wednesday. The senator told reporters he expects some Republicans to vote for it, although he wasn’t sure if every Democrat would.
Some Democrats are also protectionists, believing, like Trump, that higher tariffs can revitalize American manufacturing.
Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat who sits on the congressional Joint Economic Committee, told NOTUS that wing of his party still exists, “but I do think their dislike and distrust and horror at Donald Trump may help put them in a better place to understand why tariffs are so bad.”
“This seems to me to be the stupidest economic plan since the early Depression, when Herbert Hoover decided that austerity was how to work our way out of a worldwide depression,” Beyer told NOTUS in an interview. “It’s just unbelievable how much this goes against all normal thinking about how economies work.”
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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS. Emily Kennard, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed reporting.