Republican lawmakers exhaled in relief Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced he was pausing most of his sweeping reciprocal tariffs for 90 days.
While Trump left a lower, 10 percent global tariff in place and escalated his confrontation with China — upping those duties to 125 percent —Republicans were otherwise pleased with the apparent retreat a week after Trump’s Rose Garden announcement threw the financial and political worlds into a frenzy.
“I think jubilation is too strong a word, but … it was positive,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who described fellow senators checking in on the balances of their retirement account as stocks surged. “I think everybody can sort of identify with that going up.”
They were less pleased about how they learned the news. That would be from a Truth Social post — not from the two high-level administration officials, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender, who were addressing separate groups of lawmakers on the Hill Wednesday as the news broke. They showed no indication they knew the announcement was coming.
Inside a Republican Study Committee lunch, Faulkender pushed House members to back the GOP budget plan set for a House vote Wednesday when news broke of the tariff pause. Members wanted to know more about the administration’s end game, but he did not have answers, attendees said — nor did Greer, who was in front of the House Ways and Means Committee for his second straight day of congressional testimony.
Two tariff-skeptical South Dakota Republicans did their best to present the U-turn as part of a coherent Trump administration policy that has otherwise escaped most observers. Rep. Dusty Johnson said he was “not opposed at all to using tariffs as a negotiating tool — seems like that’s what the White House is doing.”
Added Senate Majority Leader John Thune: “I think they are checking it out and seeing what works and if they are kind of getting the response that they hope to get. I think it’s a work in progress but it sounds like they are getting some good results.”
“Behold the ‘Art of the Deal,’” Speaker Mike Johnson posted on X.
Privately, though, others in GOP saw little method to the madness. “What a shitshow,” said a conservative House Republican granted anonymity to react candidly to the pause, “and after [Greer] just testified how we need the tariffs?”