POLITICO is reporting this week that Congressional Republicans are increasingly critical of administration trade policies -- to the point that "not a party meeting goes by these days at which multiple Republicans don't vent that the president isn't listening to them -- and plot how to fight back."POLITICO argues that "mounting frustration with the Republican president could be seen as a warning sign" for the party amid "a surprisingly favorable stretch." The president appears, at least for now, to have weathered the internal GOP backlash against his family separation policy, the group said. He has a new Supreme Court vacancy to fill, and he ended last week celebrating the "economic miracle" he said his tax cuts created.But Republican senators say they can't get the president to comprehend that his tariffs offensive could upend all of that progress in short order. Commodity prices in the heartland are sagging, U.S. allies are retaliating with tariffs of their own -- and GOP leaders are fretting that the booming economy is about to go into a pre-midterms nosedive."Individual senators have met with the president, including me, Ag Committee chair Pat Roberts, R., Kan., said. "The Ag committee met with him, the Finance Committee met with him. And there's nobody for this." He said that "Trump is protectionist who has his policy wrapped around the rear axle of a pickup. And it's hard to get out."GOP senators say Trump has heard them out at White House meetings and in phone calls. But he has plowed ahead, anyway. The tit-for-tat is accelerating: Tariffs against China are expected to take effect this week.After a fruitless diplomacy campaign, some in the party are weighing confrontation. Most notably, Senator Orrin Hatch, R., Utah, is pushing legislation in his Finance Committee to rein in the president. POLITICO says this effort seems to have more support from GOP leaders than legislation that would place new checks on Trump's power to impose tariffs, which Roberts dubbed the "hand-grenade" option.Hatch "is pretty fired up," said Sen. John Thune, R., S.D., the No. 3 GOP leader. And "there's definitely a lot of sentiment among members of the Finance Committee that the administration's tariff positions are going to step on the economic gains that we've made."But the action isn't just in the finance panel, which could take weeks, if not months, to write and pass a bill that balances the Republicans' support for Trump with their opposition to his trade policies. GOP Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania are now trying to attach their own tariff proposal -- which would allow Congress to vote up or down on any tariff with a national security rationale -- to almost anything that moves across the Senate floor.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R., Ky., met privately with Corker and Toomey last week to discuss a strategy for how to get them a vote on their plan as part of the farm bill debate. But when Senate Republicans finally agreed to let them have their roll call on the Senate floor. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D., Ohio, blocked them in a surprising defense of a president from the opposing party.But Corker and Toomey said they're going to keep at it. "We're not going to abandon our efforts," the Pennsylvanian vowed.Corker and Toomey's tactics annoyed a number of Republican senators who wanted to protect the farm bill from being tarnished with an amendment that might make Trump veto the entire bill. The duo tried to do the same on a defense bill earlier in June, leading Sen. Lindsey Graham, R., S.C., to snap at the retiring Corker in a party lunch: "You don't care about the Republican Party because you're leaving."Those tensions haven't abated. Sen. Jeff Flake, R., Ariz., has blocked confirmation of Republican judges, hoping to force a vote on the Corker-Toomey plan. Among those thwarted is Georgia Circuit Court nominee Britt Grant, who is on Trump's list of potential Supreme Court nominees.And, even the excitement the pending confirmation of a conservative justice on the high court may do little to relieve the pressure that rural Republicans are feeling back home as a result of the tariffs, POLITICO says.For example, Sen. Joni Ernst, R., Iowa, said her state is hurting because of retaliatory tariffs aimed at agriculture industries -- and Iowans are fast running out of patience, POLITICO said.But there are some Trump allies who may never vote to do anything that could be perceived as undercutting the President."Everything the White House does, they're in it every day," said Sen. David Perdue, R., Ga., a close Trump ally who nonetheless opposes tariffs. "For me as a legislator here in the Senate to second guess? I am kind of reluctant to do that."
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