TOI correspondent from Washington: The question from the Republican senator to President Trump‘s trade czar at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday was illustrative of the growing panic in MAGAsphere over President Trump’s tariff gambit: “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?”
US trade representative Jamieson Greer hesitated to take responsibility but the North Carolina senator Thom Tillis said he was only the “tip of the spear” while putting the onus on Trump. The President should “give some developing countries a break… to make them look to the West” rather than China, which is what the “alla prima” (all at once) approach is doing, he said.
Greer: “The President is the final decision maker… and he has directed that there not be exclusions or exemptions.”
Sure enough, Trump lowered the boom on pharma imports a few hours later after putting a hex on Apple moving its manufacturing ops from China to India, saying they better return to the US to create jobs given the more conducive business environment.
“BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” Trump exhorted Americans as the markets see-sawed, going so far as to say “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! (into the stock market)”
Still, there is a growing sense of disquiet in the Republican ranks, with a distinct divide between what Texas Senator Ted Cruz characterized as “angels and demons sitting on President Trump’s shoulders.”
The demons are nativist, protectionist, tariff hardliners like White House trade counselor Peter Navarro and Trump’s MAGA surrogate Steve Bannon. The angels are tech bros and billionaires like Elon Musk and Bill Ackman who lean towards free trade.
In a public brawl, Musk called Navarro a “moron” and “Peter Retardo” after Navarro dismissed him as a “car assembler.”
The White House made light of the spat, saying “boys will be boys” and there is a wide range of opinion Trump listens.
Senator Crux said he should listen to the angels. “If the outcome here is really high tariffs from every country against us, and high tariffs from us against them, that’s going to be bad for Texas and bad for America,” he said in a podcast.
He’s among half-dozen Republican Senators who are counseling a more measured approach rather than the trainwreck that Trump has unleashed. Chuck Grassley, a Senator from the farm state of Iowa who has co-sponsored bipartisan legislation with a Democratic counterpart to limit Trump’s trade authority, is wondering if Congress has “delegated too much authority to the president.”
Trump’s response: “I know what the hell I’m doing…and you know what I’m doing, too. That’s why you vote for me,” he sneered, rather transparent in his contempt for a supine Congress. said.
He claimed that “companies are pouring back into the US,” and after years of countries “ripping off the US now it’s our turn to do the ripping.”
