President Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs on countries across the globe Wednesday shocked the stock market and roiled Republican senators on Capitol Hill. The duties on imports from practically every nation were a departure from decades of conservative economic orthodoxy, not to mention an unprecedented use of tariff authority by the executive branch.
Still, don’t expect too much opposition from congressional Republicans. Though they are wary of the initial effects of the announcement and the impact on business leaders and consumers in their home states, they don’t seem to have much of a plan to oppose the sweeping import duties.
Their first chance to show opposition to the tariffs came hours after the president announced them Wednesday afternoon. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, forced a vote on his resolution to repeal an emergency declaration Trump used to impose tariffs on Canada. The president justified his tariffs on our neighbor to the north by pointing to fentanyl coming across the border. Though it did not apply to Wednesday’s announcement, the Senate resolution was a first gauge of how uneasy Republicans senators were with Trump’s tariff agenda more broadly.
The measure passed with only four Republicans—Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, and Rand Paul—voting in favor. “Tariffs are a terrible mistake,” Paul said in a floor speech Wednesday. “They don’t work. They will lead to higher prices. They are a tax, and they have historically been bad for our economy.”
However, it is unlikely House Republican leadership will take it up.
But another, stronger sign of GOP wariness emerged Thursday. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa teamed up with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington on a bill that would require the president to give 48 hours notice to Congress ahead of his imposition of tariffs, and those tariffs would expire after 60 days unless Congress approves them. The bill, called the Trade Review Act of 2025, was an amendment to a section of the Trade Act of 1974, which granted the president fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals that Congress can either approve or vote down.
The Constitution gives Congress the authority to levy tariffs, but the legislative branch has gradually delegated that power to the president since the middle of the 20th century through several successive pieces of legislation, including the 1974 Trade Act. Some Republicans senators who spoke to The Dispatch showed a measure of support for clawing back control over trade—but only in the abstract.
“I think it’s time to revisit that, but I don’t want to do it in a politically charged environment,” Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota told The Dispatch. “But I absolutely agree this was set up by the Founding Fathers to be Congress’ role, and I think we’re way past the point of what the Founding Fathers ever wanted to have happen.” Asked about the bill from Grassley and Cantwell, he said he had not read it but that he would “take a hard look at it.”
Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas also expressed openness to taking back power over trade, but he did not give specifics. “I’m always for Congress exerting more authority, including on the issue of trade and tariffs.”
Elsewhere, though, other Republican senators have backed the Grassley-Cantwell bill or pushed back on Trump’s tariffs. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told Punchbowl News that he would likely support the bill but added that his approval was more about regaining legislative authority than taking power from Trump.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas openly expressed disagreement with the tariffs Thursday on Fox Business.
“I think it is a mistake to assume that we will have high tariffs in perpetuity. I don’t think that would be good economic policy. I am not a fan of tariffs,” he told host Larry Kudlow. He added that it would be a “great outcome” if Trump’s announcement leads other countries to lower their tariff rates, with the United States following in turn. A “bad outcome” would be if those other countries also raise their tariff rates, he said.
Even with significant Republican support in the Senate for Grassley’s bill, it may not get far. GOP leadership in both chambers has offered no opposition to Trump’s sweeping actions so far. It is unclear whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who said Thursday he was in a “wait and see” mode about the announced tariffs, will call a vote on the bill. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson went so far as to include language in the rule for the stopgap spending measure Congress passed last month that stops a member from bringing to the floor a resolution halting Trump’s emergency declaration used to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada.
In fact, some senators are happy to let the Trump administration take the lead on trade.
“Given that President Trump has the tool kit and the expertise of someone as capable as Jamieson Greer, who’s the trade representative, I would want Jamieson at the tip of the spear, just like I’ve seen him before,” Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee told The Dispatch. Hagerty referenced his work with the first Trump administration when he served as ambassador to Japan and Greer was chief of staff to then-U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
At the same time, there are voices ascendant in the GOP who share Trump’s fondness for and belief in tariffs. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said Congress should exert more of its authority on tariffs “only if we’re going to raise them further.”
“I’d love to raise China’s tariff rate further,” he said, referring to the 54 percent rate Chinese goods entering the U.S. are now subject to. “I’d tariff the heck out of them. It ought to be 100 percent, if you want my view. It should be, like, impossible to import anything made by the Uyghurs or anything else in China, basically, particularly anything in EV or solar-related, energy-related.”
A century ago, Republicans were especially supportive of higher tariffs. The namesakes of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, which hiked up tariffs on foreign imports, were Sen. Reed Smoot and Rep. Willis Hawley, both Republicans. Republican President Herbert Hoover then signed it into law. Republicans then became much less enamoured of higher import duties in the decades following World War II, especially under the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
The Hawley of the 21st century attributed Republicans’ more recent friendliness toward tariffs to pressure from voters.
“In states like mine, they’ve always wanted protections on our industries,” he said. “So, I think Trump represents a, in some sense, return to the norm, and certainly a return to the norm for the Republican Party, historically. But it is a big break with the ’90s-era, neo-globalist, neoliberal Republican Party.”
In Ohio, freshman Sen. Bernie Moreno defeated incumbent Sherrod Brown in November thanks to a working-class shift toward the GOP under Trump. He had choice words for Republicans who had been skeptical of tariffs in the past.
“Just the Republicans that gutted our middle class [opposed them],” he told The Dispatch. “Just those Republicans, not me.”
