The occupier of the Oval Office is finding out that rage-fueled policy making has its limits. By all accounts, Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs announced last week were born out of his impotent rage at everything and everyone around him. Trump lashed out, but at least it was a trade war and not a nuclear war. The problem, Trump has found, is that everyone besides him and his Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross thinks it's a total disaster.
That includes Senate Republicans (though Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is staying mum), House Speaker Paul Ryan, and House Republican leadership. That includes House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, who says the tariffs could hurt Republicans’ ongoing efforts to sell the tax cut scam as a good thing.
"The president has got to be very, very careful here. And if he follows through with it, and it appears that he is, I've encouraged him to be very, very surgical,” Hensarling (R-Texas) told CNN Tuesday morning. “I disagree with the president. I don't know of any trade war that ends well. That's not my reading of history.” […]
“My fear is the president’s going to walk back a lot of the progress that he's made and I don't see winners in trade wars,” Hensarling said. “We've got, you know, 300 million people who consume steel and aluminum. I mean, is this going to send up the price of a six-pack at a grocery store? Well, you know, it very well may. But we all consume this and I'm afraid this is going to hurt consumers. I think it's going to lead to a net loss of jobs.”
There's a bit of evidence that Trump is listening—or being forced to listen. Or being distracted by shiny things while his staff desperately tries to fix this mess. Because damage control is definitely being attempted, with someone in the White House assuring CNN that "the plan isn't yet finalized and that whatever is ultimately announced may be narrower in scope than initially previewed." But inside the White House, the battle rages on.
Rivals of the tariffs inside the White House are compiling daily clips of Republican criticism to present to the President, hoping to balance out the loud voices arguing in favor of the plan. Republican governors, such as Scott Walker of Wisconsin, have advised Trump to rethink his decision. Economists that Trump respects, such as former campaign adviser Stephen Moore and CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow, have said the tariffs could damage the economy. House Speaker Paul Ryan has engaged in a public dispute with the President on the matter.
But supporters of the plan, including trade adviser Peter Navarro, have argued equally as loudly that the tariffs would please Trump's conservative base and Trump has signaled he's unwilling to budge, at least in principle.
"No, we're not backing down," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
Trump himself has been … well, himself. Erratic. Reportedly, anyway. In discussions with foreign leaders including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Theresa May, "a person close to the trade talks" says that he signaled flexibility and assured the leaders no final decisions had been made. That could be the official line from the White House staff trying to calm the furor of everyone else, but we've got Trump's own words up there. He says he's not backing down.
But, hey—there is one thing coming out of this debacle. Republicans have found something they can oppose him on. They are fine with the Russia stuff, but don’t make a six-pack cost their constituents more.