President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs have already resulted in even more GOP infighting, according to Punchbowl News.
“There’s a massive disconnect between the White House and Capitol Hill Republicans on tariffs right now,” Jake Sherman wrote on X. “Here on the Hill, Republicans keep saying “well, this is the beginning of a negotiation. The administration says that this is not a negotiation.”
These tariffs—placed on friend and foe alike—are certain to drive up costs for both manufacturers and consumers, especially in red, rural states that rely on foreign goods in both imports and exports. This feeble attempt to spin these tariffs into a “negotiation” falls flat in the face of an administration that is touting them as law. Trump has been very clear that he believes the tariffs will be so successful that they will replace the income tax and make the country wealthier than it has been at any point in its history—not that he is levying them in order to make marginally better trading deals.
Senior Senate Republican Chuck Grassley has already moved to take action against Trump with his Trade Review Act of 2025, a bill that—while almost certainly dead on arrival—demonstrates the uncomfortable decisions that many Republicans will soon be forced to make as their president’s wanton tariffs make everything more expensive for constituents already struggling.
This is the second sign of internal disunity in 24 hours. On Thursday, it was reported that far-right crank Laura Loomer had an Oval Office meeting in which she convinced the president to fire multiple members of the National Security Council on the grounds that they were “neocons.” Loomer denies this report.
