Tear Republicans apart

Trump tariffs tear Republicans apart

Senate Republicans want to rein him in, but the House GOP isn't going there.

By RACHAEL BADE and BURGESS EVERETT

Senate Republicans eager to take a harder line against President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war are running smack into an unlikely obstacle: their House GOP colleagues.

With Trump threatening $500 billion in additional tariffs on China and new levies on foreign cars, Senate Republicans are increasingly focused on writing legislation to tie his hands. And it’s not just usual Trump critics like Jeff Flake and Bob Corker: Trump ally Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch is working on a bill limiting the president from imposing new national security tariffs.

But across the Capitol, Speaker Paul Ryan and GOP leaders have all but rejected that approach. House Republicans, who rarely push back on the president, say it’s more productive to try to convince Trump privately or through letters or committee hearings than to force his hand legislatively. The president responds better to carrots than sticks, they say — and, privately, many of them fear his wrath heading into the thick of election season.

“We’d become the issue rather than the issue become the issue,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) of passing legislation. “Let the Senate pass it.’”

“Ask them how they expect the president to sign it,” House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) said of the Senate approach. “It may just be messaging… [The trade matter] would be over before any of that could get done.”

The split-strategy undermines Hill Republicans’ drive to blunt Trump’s protectionist trade policies. Instead, the political party of free markets is watching the president dole out $12 billion in subsidies for farmers hurt by his trade war with China, Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Indeed, while Republicans have been able to bend the president to their will on immigration and gun policy — walking him back from an immigration deal with Democrats last fall and suffocating his gun-control talk this spring — they've had no such luck on trade.

Senate Republicans think the solution is to look tough and think legislatively. But, with House Republicans all but in Trump’s pocket, the White House knows their threat is empty.

“It’s a more Trump-friendly environment, anyway, in the House,” said Flake, the retiring GOP senator from Arizona. “So that makes it more difficult. But there’s less of a willingness, particularly with two year terms, to challenge the president.”

House and Senate Republicans agree that an escalating trade war — specifically collateral damage to the economy — is the biggest threat to their majorities. But House leaders have long preferred to work with, not against, the administration. The Ways and Means Committee has held hearings with administration officials, written countless letters and even sent delegations of members to trade negotiations to encourage deal-making.

Senate Republicans, however, are growing impatient. They say it’s becoming increasingly clear that talk is not enough. Hatch said he believes Trump has been “rocked back a bit” by his draft proposal to restrict the president from imposing tariffs with the stated rationale of protecting national security.

“I’m filing a bill that would make it rougher to do that, the tariffs,” Hatch said in an interview Wednesday. “It should have an effect.”

But just hours earlier, as Trump awaited the arrival of a dozen top Republicans to the White House who were expected to confront him on trade, the president taunted his GOP trade critics.

“Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking?” he wrote in a three-tweet tirade. “Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!"

Later Wednesday, Trump made a move intended to silence his harshest critics by agreeing with the European Union to try and resolve the tariff fight over steel and aluminum. Trump said it was "a very big day for free and fair trade."

Hatch’s legislative effort is part of a growing number of bills aimed at reining in the president. Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Corker (R-Tenn.) have a bill requiring congressional approval for any new tariff that cites national security for justification. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Doug Jones (D-Ala.) unveiled a proposal intended to prevent tariffs on cars.

“This is truly getting out of control … It is harming our nation but also our relationships around the world,” Corker said, emphasizing that the bailout is making his bill more viable. Lawmakers, he added, recognize "how incoherent this policy actually is. I don’t know of a senator who could defend this.”

“This thing could crescendo and like a snowball, roll,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who supports Corker’s bill. “A $12 billion cash infusion on a Depression-era authority to react to a bad situation is not a way to run a railroad.”

Compare that with House Republicans: Asked about the possibility of passing legislation Wednesday, Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady merely said he will “monitor” legislative support for such ideas. Ways and Means member Thomas Reed (R-N.Y.) was downright hostile about it.

“I see that as an ‘optics’ thing that could cause division [and lead] us to a more protracted dispute with our allies!” Reed said. “Because the more that you send the message that the president is not being supported up here, the more [foreign leaders] will say, ‘We’ll just wait you out.’”

He added: “We need to show support for this new trade policy and send a message to the world: ‘Negotiate this out.’”

Sentiments like that are the reason House GOP leaders have taken a different approach than their Senate counterparts. They’ve invited top trade officials from the administration to the Hill for private venting sessions. Last week, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was grilled by angry GOP lawmakers, multiple sources in the meeting said. This week, Trump’s top trade official Peter Navarro and economic adviser Larry Kudlow will meet privately with GOP members.

Beyond arguing that the president would veto any of the bills, House leaders also say it’s unlikely Congress could muster veto-proof majorities. And despite the large number of rank-and-file senators who feel differently, Senate GOP leaders still prefer diplomacy with the administration, though they acknowledge their members are growing increasingly impatient.

“The president’s not going to sign it,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) of anti-tariff legislation, backing Ryan's approach in the House. “The best way to do this is through direct contact with the administration.”

Proponents believe that simply forcing Trump to veto legislation would amount to a significant check on his powers.

Trump's poll numbers also give House Republicans pause: They're wary of alienating the president when he's so popular with their base.

Only a handful of Senate Republicans are up for reelection this year, one of the reasons the chamber is remaining in session in August while House members fly home. That fact alone shows the contrast in trade strategies.

“The midterms are coming up. I understand that’s the driving force there,” Corker said of the House’s reluctance to take on Trump.

Corker, of course, is not running for reelection.