GOP insider raises tariff alarm: 'Cutting off all the legs of the stool to own the left'

As GOP activists continue debating the value of President Donald Trump's tariffs, one conservative called on fellow Republicans to speak out to rescue the economy.

"Tariffs have negatively impacted everything from the grocery prices to wage growth and much of the institutional right that long opposed tariffs now refuse to speak out against tariffs because they want a seat at Trump’s table," said Erick Erickson on X. "They stopped speaking against antisemitism because they thought that’d attract young men to them. And now they’re complicit in corrupting the right’s understanding of both economics and morality — so cutting off all the legs of the stool to own the left."

GOP political strategist Mike Madrid noted sarcastically, "If only someone had told us this would happen in 2016." He was among those Republicans willing to stand up against Trump in 2016. He and others went on to co-found the Lincoln Project.

Erickson went on to complain that economic warning signals were blaring.

"There are so many warning signs about the economy and Republicans have now adopted the Democrat script of claiming everything is fine," he said.

The New York Times noted last week that a largely "symbolic" vote by Republican Senators against Trump's tariffs passed three times. In a lunch, they then confronted Vice President JD Vance over the tariffs and Trump's idea to import Argentine beef.

"Republicans in Congress have marched in near-lock step with the president’s foreign and domestic policy agenda. But taken together, the votes to end his tariffs and the private confrontation with the vice president indicated growing angst in the G.O.P. over the impact Mr. Trump’s trade agenda is having on constituents," the report said.