Trump tariffs open rift among top Republicans in Washington

A group of Republican lawmakers and conservative donors has hit out at Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs on US trading partners, signalling some unease within the party at the president’s economic strategy.

Trump broke with Republican free-market orthodoxy again on Wednesday, launching a new trade war that sparked a sharp sell-off in equity markets amid fears for the global economy.

Some members of Congress, including former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, and wealthy Republicans were quick to register their disapproval with Trump’s move, and one said it could cleave the party.

“I think it’s going to be absolutely disastrous for the American people, the consumer, the families, the workers,” Art Pope, the chief executive of a North Carolina general merchandise retail chain and longtime Republican donor, told the Financial Times.

“President Trump is wrong,” Pope said. “You will see the conservative movement — the Republican party — fracturing, splitting between the traditional Reagan conservatives who believe in freedom and limited government and the nationalist, populist Trump supporters, who believe that government power should be used to impose their vision of what’s best for society.”

Markets slumped on Thursday following Trump’s announcement of steep tariffs on US trading partners. The S&P 500 closed down nearly 5 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped 6 per cent.

While criticism of Trump’s trade war remains a minority view within the party, the Republican blowback was the most extensive since he returned to the White House in January.

“As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most,” said McConnell. “At a time when Americans are tightening their belts, we would do well to avoid policies that heap on the pain.”

Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who has served in Congress for 50 years, on Thursday proposed legislation that would curb the president’s ability to unilaterally enact tariffs and give Congress the authority to block new levies after 60 days.

“For too long, Congress has delegated its clear authority to regulate interstate and foreign commerce to the executive branch,” said Grassley, whose state is highly reliant on agricultural trade.

On Wednesday, four Republican senators — McConnell, Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins — broke ranks to pass a Democratic-led resolution demanding a halt to US tariffs on Canada. The move was largely symbolic as the bill has little hope of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives but underlined the growing disquiet.

“I’m keenly aware of the negative impacts in store for Alaskan families and businesses should tariffs drive up the costs of essential goods,” Murkowski wrote on X.

Tim Chapman, president of a think-tank founded by Trump’s first-term vice-president Mike Pence, posted on X that there was “a major rift” within the Republican party over tariffs, with some traditional conservatives hoping they were a negotiating tactic but others inside the administration pushing for “permanent protectionism to eliminate the trade deficit”.

“We have had conversations with business leaders across the country,” Chapman told the FT. “Generally speaking they want to be supportive of this administration. But I consistently hear that the tariff chaos is negatively impacting their businesses . . . I think they are willing to put up with one-quarter of this terrible environment. If you ask them to suffer through another quarter I think the dam breaks in very bad ways.”

But others in the party insisted the economic disruption was necessary to realign the trading order.

“We’ll manufacture far more domestically than we have been,” Robert Bigelow, a hotel and aerospace magnate who donated more than $15mn to Trump’s 2024 campaign, told the FT. “We have been lax for years in responding to other countries’ tariffs on us.”

Adam Geller, a Republican pollster, dismissed the “noise” from party rebels. “There’s going to be some whining,” he said. “But at the end of the day Donald Trump is going to win on this issue.”

Other Republicans in Congress stepped behind the president.

“Consumers won’t like the price of anything, including their gas and groceries, when China is our sole source provider,” Jodey Arrington, the House budget committee chair, told the FT.

“Resetting the world trade order and levelling the playing field for American producers means accepting an ounce of pain for a pound of long-term prosperity and security.”

Tom Cole, the House appropriations chair, told the FT he “broadly” supported what Trump was “trying to accomplish and the manner in which he is proceeding”. But he warned: “It will be a bumpy ride.”