Play powerless pussies.........

Republicans play powerless as Trump tariff fears sweep across the globe

While GOP lawmakers could stop the presidential levies, they made clear they would not do so anytime soon.

By Katherine Tully-McManus, Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney

Faced with President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs, Wall Street traders voted with their dollars Thursday, selling off trillions in stock market value amid growing fears of inflation and recession.

Meanwhile, Republicans on Capitol Hill — who could use their own votes to stop the new tariffs cold — made clear they had no intention of acting anytime soon.

“I think most members on our side are very willing to give the president time,” Arkansas Sen. John Boozman said, summing up the view of many GOP lawmakers who might have qualms about Trump’s massive new levies but showed little interest — at least for now and the near future — in doing anything concrete to restrain him.

On the one hand, it was the latest example of how timid Republican lawmakers have grown in checking or challenging Trump, who has remade the GOP in his own image over the course of a decade. On the other, some hints of possible future pushback emerged — four GOP senators voted with Democrats Wednesday to overturn an earlier, smaller tranche of tariffs, and a veteran Republican senator proposed curtailing presidential powers to levy tariffs.

But in interview after interview Thursday, as the markets sunk deeper and deeper, senators made clear they would not be sticking their necks out on the issue.

“I think Congress has willingly given up its constitutional authority to the executive, and I wouldn’t be opposed to starting to claw some of that thing back, but that’s not where we are right now,” said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

And while Democrats are hoping that an upcoming break back in their home states will build pressure on them to act, GOP senators are signaling that at least for now they are hardening against efforts to undo Trump’s tariffs in the near term.

“I think the problem they have is what they’re doing appears to be a partisan issue to embarrass the president,” said Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, predicting that future votes to nix Trump’s tariffs would be a “shirts and skins game” in the Senate.

The immediate reaction raised a question that few Republicans were eager to answer: What would it take for them to pull the plug on Trump’s tariff campaign? How bad would the markets have to get?

Even as some GOP senators questioned if they should claw back some of their power after years of ceding it to the executive branch, most of their colleagues offered a reality check: It’s not going to happen.

One, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, said Congress should only step in to make tariffs higher. Several others, including Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, doubted whether a bill constraining Trump’s powers generally could ever pass.

“We need some fairness here. We’ve been taken advantage of through Republican and Democrat administrations of the past and that has stopped,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said when asked how much runway Republicans would give Trump to prove his policies are working.

One senior Republican aide, granted anonymity to describe the dynamics inside the party, said GOP lawmakers were prepared to give Trump “several months” at the very least. “Everyone is terrified,” the aide said. “But I don’t think anyone wants to cross the president right now.”

Democrats are planning to force them to make that choice again and again in the coming days and weeks. They saw some initial success Wednesday, when they persuaded four Republican senators to join them in approving a symbolic resolution blocking Trump’s Canada tariffs first announced in February.

They announced plans Thursday to do it again, this time with a measure that could come to the Senate floor later this month and undo the sweeping tariffs Trump rolled out this week. Separately, House Democrats announced plans to do much the same on their side of the Capitol, while Democratic senators plotted ways to put Trump‘s trade moves on the floor in a marathon series of budget votes expected over the weekend.

“He’s walking us into the dumbest and most avoidable recession, probably in history,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said about Trump.

One bipartisan proposal introduced Thursday by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) would limit presidential power on tariffs, giving Congress 60 days to approve any new tariffs and the power to end any tariff at any time.

But only a handful of Senate Republicans expressed interest in that measure, and overturning the Trump tariffs that are already in place would require a mass exodus inside the GOP — one that shows no signs of materializing.

One of the laws Trump has used to levy his tariffs, the National Emergencies Act, allows Congress to quickly debate and vote on a disapproval resolution that would effectively cancel the basis for applying the tariffs. But there are major obstacles to doing so: Not only would the Senate have to act, but the GOP-controlled House would have to approve the same measure. Trump could then still veto it, forcing a two-thirds-majority override vote.

Already in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson has moved to prevent any vote from occurring. He pushed through a provision that essentially sidelined a Democratic effort to force a vote on the Canada tariffs, and he could do much the same for Trump’s latest tranche of “Liberation Day” duties. Democrats, meanwhile, said they are exploring options — including a possible discharge petition — to force a vote in the House.

Even if the economic pain deepens, Johnson would face major obstacles in even allowing a vote to reach the floor, potentially opening himself up to a removal vote from House hard-liners who fiercely support Trump’s trade moves. The speaker is closely aligned with the president and is counting on him to drag a massive domestic policy bill across the finish line later this year.

The White House on Thursday sent talking points to GOP lawmakers that said little about the market dip but suggested they lambast the free-trade policies many of them have long supported as having led to the “selling out of the middle class” and “the decline of small towns across America.”

While Trump is unlikely to even run for political office again, most congressional Republicans will be standing for reelection in 2026, and some Democrats said they believed support could grow over time inside the GOP for undoing at least some of the tariffs.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who authored the disapproval resolution approved Wednesday, predicted a “larger universe” of Republicans would come around — particularly after leaving Washington next week for a two-week recess.

“I think people need to go home and hear what their constituents are telling them,” he said.

A second GOP aide, also granted anonymity to describe discussions inside the party, would not predict a Republican jailbreak but predicted the economic turmoil was just beginning, with retaliatory tariffs from U.S. trading partners yet to kick in: “If you thought today was bad, buckle up.”