GOP lawmakers not willing to bail Trump out on tariffs: report

Any hope that Donald Trump may have had that the Republican majority in the House would agree to hand to him their power to enact tariffs after his humiliating 6-3 defeat at the Supreme Court on Friday should be put aside, according to the National Review.

The furious president’s claim that he doesn’t need Congress may be an acknowledgement that he knows he does not have the Republican caucus members on his side, many of whom are reportedly thrilled that the nation’s highest court has put the president in his place.

According to the report, if there is a second reconciliation bill in the offing, handing over congressional authority on tariffs will be nowhere to be found.

National Review’s Audrey Fahlberg reported, “Several Republicans responded to Friday’s ruling by praising the Court for acknowledging Congress’s rightful authority over the taxing power, and it’s been clear to Republican leadership for months that including tariff language in a second reconciliation bill would be unpopular with a significant segment of their caucus.”

As the report notes, it would be a non-starter for almost half of the caucus, based on a strategy get-together last year.

“In one strategy meeting with conservative advocacy groups late last year, for example, Johnson staffers predicted that a tariff codification proposal could lose 20 to 30 percent of the House GOP caucus if it were included in a second reconciliation bill, a person familiar with the matter told National Review,” Fahlberg wrote. “One Johnson aide chimed in with an even more bearish prediction, pegging that figure as being closer to 40 percent.”

The report adds that “It’s not clear whether Trump had seen the reactions from multiple congressional Republicans in both chambers praising the Court’s ruling,” adding, “Attempting to whip the votes for tariff legislation would carry major political risks for the second-term president.”

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