Congress could end President Donald Trump’s far-reaching new tariffs at any time, but Republicans aren’t likely to do that — at least for now.
If GOP senators have concerns about higher prices, supply chain disruption and broad economic turmoil after Trump announced on Wednesday strict tariffs on products from most countries, they’re mostly keeping those fears to themselves.
Republicans instead told NOTUS on Thursday they want to give Trump’s tariffs, implemented under emergency presidential powers, a chance to work — backing his authority to abruptly slap tariffs on allies and adversaries alike. And even if the economy starts to crumble, most Republicans said they would be hesitant to do anything to push back on Trump’s trade strategy.
“I’m, at this point, giving the president the benefit of the doubt on this,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who has opposed tariffs and tried to roll back presidential trade powers during Trump’s first term.
“Congress has given it to him,” Johnson said of Trump’s use of emergency powers. “So.”
Some senators grew visibly uncomfortable or laughed when asked if they believed the president should be able to upend the global economy on a whim, without buy-in from Congress.
Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas insisted that he wasn’t going to comment on the matter, and Sen. Joni Ernst cut off questions: “President Trump has a plan. We’ll go with that,” she said.
Sen. Chuck Grassley — Ernst’s Iowa colleague and a farmer — has said he wants to give Trump’s plan a chance to work. But, he introduced legislation alongside Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell on Thursday to give Congress a say on new tariffs and to require the president to provide lawmakers with details in advance.
That bill isn’t likely to become law in a GOP-held Congress, even with Grassley’s support. Some Republicans introduced similar bills to claw back congressional trade powers during Trump’s first term, but those efforts never succeeded.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has been the most outspoken Republican opponent of Trump’s tariffs. He even co-sponsored a resolution to undo Trump’s earlier tariffs on Canada, which was adopted by the Senate on Wednesday. The House — where Speaker Mike Johnson has argued that members should trust Trump’s economic instincts — is not likely to take it up for a vote.
“Taxes should originate in Congress, and more specifically, they should originate in the House,” Paul said Thursday. “Tariffs are a tax, and so they should never be instituted by one person, they should be instituted by Congress.”
But if his colleagues have concerns about Trump overstepping his constitutional authorities, they’re certainly not being as vocal as Paul.
“He has the authority,” Sen. Steve Daines of Montana told reporters. “And he exerted that authority.”
And North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd claimed Trump’s move was “part of his authority given to him by the Constitution.”
The Constitution empowers Congress to set duties and taxes, delineated in its Article 1 authorities. Trump is operating and issuing tariffs under emergency powers, delegated by Congress to the president instead.
Some Republicans seemed to recognize delegating authority to the president can come with some drawbacks.
“We’ve made a mistake in delegating a lot of power to the executive branch,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said. But he emphasized that’s more of a “long-standing issue.”
Cornyn didn’t sound likely to challenge Trump’s moves. “He’s the duly elected president of the United States,” the senator said. “He’s got a lot of authority.”
Sen. Roger Wicker also noted that Congress has given power to the president over time: “There’s a lot of concern today, no question,” he said.
Economic challenges are already evident: 900 auto workers in the Midwest have been temporarily laid off as a direct result of Trump’s new automobile tariffs and the U.S. stock market saw sharp drops across multiple indexes on Thursday in anticipation of a global trade war.
Asked how congressional Republicans would respond if the economy collapsed under Trump’s new tariffs, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma dismissed the possibility altogether.
“The economy’s not going to collapse,” Lankford told NOTUS. “I do not believe the economy is going to collapse. It’s just as simple as: I can look at the four years of the economy under the Trump administration and four years of the economy in the Biden administration. And it’s pretty obvious which one was more successful.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama brushed off the panic. “Nah,” he said when asked if he’s worried about stocks tumbling. “Market’s all emotional, OK?”
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, slammed most Republicans for going along with Trump’s tariffs during his first term, and again now.
“They were in charge back then. They are in charge today,” Murphy told NOTUS. “They control the Senate. They control the House. They can choose to introduce legislation to stop any of these tariffs. We would vote with them. It would be a veto-proof majority.”
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley also blamed Congress for taking a backseat, but he told NOTUS he would want to use legislation to set tariff rates even higher.
“If Congress doesn’t like it, they should ask themselves why they’ve given presidents, not this one, but presidents, this authority over 50 years,” Hawley said. “It’s like, ‘Hello, wake up, smell the coffee; this is what Congress has done for 50 years.’ Some of my colleagues suddenly just discovered it, it’s like, ‘Wait, he has this authority?’ It’s like, ‘Yeah, you gave it to him.’”
Some Republicans seem to be hoping this won’t last.
Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas told reporters he had anticipated “more targeted” tariffs from Trump, “and perhaps a more modest approach in the amounts.”
But, he continued, “The thing you never know about the Trump administration is how long this lasts, and whether it’s a temporary thing.”
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Emily Kennard and Helen Huiskes are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows. Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS.