It’s Republicans' Fault

MAGA Republicans own the tariff and recession

The Economist’s headline on Monday said it all:

Market Carnage Goes Global

As stock markets plunge, Donald Trump seems untroubled. That is scary

Trump’s insistence on doubling down on disastrous consumer taxes (tariffs)—even suggesting a new 50 percent tariff on China—is a strong indication that, true to form, he will refuse to concede error. Instead, he will persist in wrecking the international global trading system and nuking trillions in wealth. Equal parts economically illiterate and defiant toddler, he would rather see the U.S. economy and his presidency go up in smoke than reverse course.

On Monday, Trump raved on Truth Social:

“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid!”

Is it all that stupid to be worried by trillions in lost wealth, impending layoffs, a rising chance of recession, and the economic chaos that is paralyzing investors? Perhaps not if you are below the top 1 percent and lack your own golf club to which you can escape the economic tumult to tee off with the Saudis. Trump bellowed on:

“Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”

His temper tantrum would surprise no one who has been following his utter indifference to expertise, public opinion, and common sense for the worst part of a decade. But before we attribute this entire self-inflicted disaster to one man’s unhinged psyche and stubborn ignorance, we should remember this ordeal could end TOMORROW. All it would take is a few House and Senate Republicans willing to stand up to Trump.

“Sen. Rand Paul—a right-wing firebrand from a deep red state—is in some ways an unlikely figure to articulate a searing case against Donald Trump’s agenda,” The Washington Post reports. “But the senator from Kentucky is issuing a stark warning to fellow Republicans that Trump’s tariff policies could lead to a generational political loss for the party.” Terrific—so why not mount a filibuster and/or stall nominees until Congress yanks back the power to lay tariffs?

So far, most Senate Republicans appear to be utterly indifferent to the pain their party is causing. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told PBS News Hour host Amna Nawaz last week: “Well, obviously a 5 percent decrease in the markets would heighten my concern. I would assume that got the president and his advisers’ attention as well.” If only he had a position of authority to do something about this. He sounds less like an elected official and more like an ivory tower academic pondering the amount of distress that can be inflicted before we slide into a full-blown recession. “I think everybody’s kind of bracing to see what the fallout is and really how painful this experience is going to be,” he intoned. Is that how this works, Senator?

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), appearing on CBS, declared, “The Constitution is clear, the House and the Senate, Congress, has the power of tariffs and taxes, and we gave some of that power to the executive branch, and I think in hindsight, that was a mistake.” When he rounds up votes, forces a floor vote, and withholds support for passage of the mammoth tax cut that Republicans crave until tariffs are repealed, we might take him seriously.

It’s hard to find lawmakers of either party who were demanding a trade war. Nor has the public been clamoring for detonation of international trade, at a time when our economy was leading the world. The Economist’s Douglas Irwin reminds us that “a Gallup poll released last month found that 81% of Americans surveyed believe trade is an opportunity for growth—the highest level since the poll began in 1992—and only 14% view trade as an economic threat.” Now, it’s a dagger in the heart of the economy.

You would think some of those Republican lawmakers from distressed Midwestern states would be marching up to the White House to demand an about-face. As the Wall Street Journal reports on the economic meltdown awaiting Michigan, “one auto executive early last week darkly predicted ‘Chernobyl’ if tariffs broadly hit imported parts, which they’re scheduled to do next month. Industry executives and analysts later said what the administration outlined Wednesday was worse than they expected.” Yet Michigan Republicans have been largely mute, despite a University of Michigan economist “forecasting that the new steel and aluminum tariffs alone will cost Michigan 600 auto manufacturing jobs by the end of next year, and an additional 1,700 jobs in industries that serve auto workers,” with an even bigger impact from the auto tariffs.

What, exactly, are the Michigan GOP representatives Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar, Bill Huizenga, Tim Walberg, Tom Barrett, Lisa McClain, and John James waiting for?

Frankly, every marginally vulnerable House and Senate Republican (from Maine’s Susan Collins to North Carolina’s Thom Tillis to Iowa’s Joni Ernst to South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham to Texas’s John Cornyn) on the ballot in 2026 should be quaking in their boots. (The Hill switchboard number, by the way, is (202) 224-3121.)

The outlook appears so grim that even Trump’s enablers and apologists in tech and finance are worried. The New York Times reports that in his annual shareholder letter, Jamie Dimon solemnly declared: “The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession.” Even Elon Musk is squawking. It just might be that in their insatiable quest for power and tax cuts, the oligarchs missed the obvious: The GOP’s obsequiousness to Trump is leading the economy into an entirely avoidable disaster of historic proportions. Maybe when they begin to demand Republicans in the House and Senate intervene (and threaten to withhold campaign donations if they do not), we’ll see progress.

If they expected a better economy under unified Republican rule, the business moguls were not paying attention. “The last five recessions all started while a Republican was in the White House (Reagan. G.H.W. Bush, G.W. Bush twice, and Trump),” Jeffrey Frankel from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government wrote last year. That soon may be the last six recessions. “A remarkable 9 of the last 10 recessions have started when a Republican was president. The odds that this outcome would have occurred just by chance are even more remote: one out of 100.”

The American people might have short memories. But as we head over the economic cliff, they should have no trouble identifying which party, not just which president, is solely responsible for this fiasco. It’s the supposed party of fiscal responsibility, once again. In every election this year and next, they have a chance to force a course correction by booting out the economic dullards who have left us all poorer, the world in turmoil, and their reputations in tatters.