Republican lawmakers were pleasantly surprised Wednesday afternoon after President Donald Trump announced a broad pause on most of his tariffs, a move that once again shook up the market — this time in a positive direction.
“Sounds like a reasonable thing to do, considering he’s got a lot of phone calls to return and some deals to make,” Sen. Kevin Cramer told NOTUS. “Seems like a pretty practical approach.”
Cramer said he did not have a heads up that the pause was coming but was “not surprised by it.”
The White House press secretary cast Trump’s policy change as the “art of the deal,” and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill were sounding the same note.
“It kind of proves that Trump’s a good dealmaker,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley. “In fact, I’d like to hire him to buy some farmland for me in Iowa. I think it brings predictability, it shows moderation. It shows that there’s kind of an end game. And I think it’s going to bring credibility to his whole process.”
Sen. Katie Britt — who appeared to find out about the pause from reporters — also applauded the president.
“Look, I think, you know, President Trump ran on this, and the ultimate goal is driving up American wages and being able to create greater opportunity for American families,” Britt said.
Sen. John Boozman, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee with Britt, told NOTUS that he was “pleased” with the president and that the pause was “just a step in the negotiation process.”
The announcement from Trump came as members of the Republican Study Committee left a lunch meeting at the Capitol, where they were initially set to hear from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He ended up not appearing; according to one source who was in the room, the committee’s chair, Rep. August Pfluger, told members that Bessent was called into an Oval Office meeting.
Soon after the announcement, Bessent appeared outside the White House, where he said he and Trump had spoken and said the about-face on tariffs was unrelated to the bond market.
“We’ve had more than 75 countries contact us and I imagine after today there will be more, so it is just a process and problem. Each one of these solutions is going to be bespoke, it is going to take some time and President Trump wants to be personally involved, so that’s why we’re doing the 90-day pause,” Bessent said.
The announcement from Trump appeared to take lawmakers by surprise as they walked out of the lunch — including former House member and current North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong, who returned to the Capitol to speak at the lunch.
“What?” he said when reporters asked how he felt about the pause. “When did this happen?”
Armstrong then praised the president’s decision to exempt China from the pause and instead raise its tariffs to 125%, calling it a good move.
Sen. Rand Paul, who has been critical of the tariffs, expressed relief.
“This spooked them, and I’m glad that they’ve backed off on the tariffs for 90 days. Hopefully there’ll be some people talking some sense into the policy and being less extreme,” Paul said.
Some lawmakers touted the pause as a smart move amid market volatility.
“I think that’s what a lot of people are looking for, is they don’t know where this ends and what’s going to happen in the interim. So I think a 90-day pause provides people a sense of, ‘OK, we can all take a deep breath, nothing’s likely to change in the next 90 days,’ and then they’re moving toward a negotiated tariff policy that hopefully will approach zero,” Sen. John Cornyn said about why markets were recovering.
Sen. Roger Wicker told NOTUS that he thinks it’s in the country’s best interest for the pause to remain permanent.
“If the idea [is to] make some free trade agreements and enjoy a good business relationship with our trading partners, then that’s a good idea,” Wicker said.
Global markets have responded poorly and dramatically since Trump announced a host of tariffs last week, and plunged further Wednesday morning after China and the European Union each announced retaliatory tariffs on many United States imports. But after Trump announced the 90-day pause Wednesday afternoon, markets were up.
It was a very different scenario than the start of the day, when Bessent spoke with bankers Wednesday morning and tried to reassure them that the economy was “in pretty good shape” and characterized dips in the stock market as “a little uncertainty.”
Several senators said that they didn’t want to weigh in on whether the pause should become permanent.
“I want to see him get a good result, so I’m for whatever will get a result, which is better, freer, fairer trade for my agricultural products in the state of Missouri. I want to see auto jobs not being lost in Missouri. I want to see wages going up, so I’m for what gets us to that point,” Sen. Josh Hawley said.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, who serves in the Missouri delegation with Hawley, told reporters that the 90-day pause “is an acknowledgement that the 70-plus countries have come to the table,” and that he thinks Americans will appreciate Trump’s actions in the future.
“I think people are going to look back 30 years from now, and this is a real realignment that’ll work for the American worker,” Schmitt said. “And that’s what President Trump talked about on the campaign trail. And I think that’s what he’s delivered on.”
Others, however, said they want to see the president do more on top of a pause.
“It doesn’t do much for certainty,” Sen. Thom Tillis — another tariff skeptic — said of the pause. “So now I think the next phase needs to be really moving quickly on deal flow for the major trading partners.”
Asked by a reporter whether he feels he has an understanding of the president’s end game on tariffs, Sen. Mike Rounds said “no.”
Asked if he was OK with that as an elevator door closed, the senator just shrugged.
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Shifra Dayak and Torrence Banks are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows. Reese Gorman, Daniella Diaz, Emily Kennard, and Claire Heddles contributed reporting.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.