Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” — this Wednesday, when the president plans to slap even more tariffs on imports from around the world — has any number of goals, depending on who you ask.
To hear Trump and his officials tell it, the trade war is variously intended to raise revenue, bolster America’s national security, force other countries to accept Trump’s demands about unrelated policy issues, reshape American consumption habits, bring more manufacturing to the United States, compel Canada to become the 51st state, and/or convince other countries to expand market access to American goods.
Those contradictory goals don’t offer lawmakers much reason to believe that this will be a precise or short-lived trade war — even though that’s what most of them are hoping for, as they hear from companies in their districts facing higher prices and retaliation from other countries.
“I’ve heard from our beef exporters in Omaha and our popcorn growers that they’re losing markets in Europe,” Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, told NOTUS on Monday.
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Bringing manufacturing back to America is a “good goal,” Bacon said, but it “is debatable if tariffs get this done.”
“Free trade has been proven to provide the best quality, at the best price in the most efficient manner to consumers,” he wrote in a text.
Trump’s team believes tariffs, which American importers typically pay rather than foreign companies, can reverse long-term trends in international trade and revitalize cities that used to be manufacturing hubs. Economists, meanwhile, are growing increasingly fearful that Trump’s trade war could spark a global recession.
Bacon is a rare Republican who’s willing to publicly criticize the tariffs. Most others are firmly behind the president, as he targets adversaries and allies alike.
Trump has already slapped new duties on America’s closest trading partners, and he plans to implement 25% tariffs on automobiles. He said over the weekend that “Liberation Day” could involve additional tariffs on all countries, an idea he often discussed on the campaign trail, although his advisers have suggested the new tariffs could instead focus on 10 to 15 countries that send more imports into the United States than American companies send to those countries.
Congress has jurisdiction over trade policy, but Trump has used national security and emergency authorities to unilaterally impose his tariffs on foreign goods. Republican lawmakers don’t plan to claw back those powers — they aren’t even in the loop on Trump’s plans.
A lobbyist who works with companies facing higher costs from the tariffs, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told NOTUS on Monday that congressional staff had no idea what exactly Trump’s “Liberation Day” will entail, but GOP lawmakers will support it anyway because they feel Trump has a mandate.
This lobbyist, who worked with companies on trade policy during Trump’s first term, said Republican Hill offices are much more unapologetic about the challenges companies are facing from Trump’s trade war this time.
“There’s not the same care and consideration for what the corporate community wants — kind of, ‘Tough luck, enjoy your deregulation and otherwise don’t bother us,’” this lobbyist summarized. And “there’s just not an appetite the way there was eight years ago to even voice any complaints to the administration.”
Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, told NOTUS on Monday that he supports Trump’s moves so far.
“Everybody understands why we’re doing it,” he said in an interview. “They understand that we’re at the will and mercy of foreign companies.”
Burchett argued the president had to step in because lawmakers are broadly reluctant to raise tariffs.
“Congress does not have the guts to do it. Neither party has the wherewithal or the intestinal fortitude to do what needs to be done to right the ship,” Burchett said. “Trump’s the only one that can do it. It’s got to be done.”
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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS.
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