Conservatives cheer Trump tariff pause

You could feel relief in the room of leaders from conservative organizations after President Trump said he would pause the bulk of his “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs for 90 days.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, was leading a press conference of the conservative coalition leaders advocating for the budget resolution that will advance. 

Ryan Ellis, president of Center for a Free Economy, told him the news — “We’ve already secured a tax cut for the American people,” Ellis said, as a few people in the room responded with applause.

As the leaders tried to get up to speed on the details — tariffs on China went up, and a 10 percent baseline reciprocal tariff remains — the initial reaction was positive.

“I think almost every conservative agrees that the tariffs are bad as an economic policy. Where we have a lot of disagreement is they may be good as a foreign policy, they may be good as negotiating leverage,” said Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment. He added: “It's a pure win that it's paused, because we'll avoid so much of the economic harm.”

Norquist, though, had a more cautious response, saying that there was still potential for a “long tariff war.”

“Maybe it's a foreign policy thing, and maybe it's successfully used as a tool — It's still disruptive, and it shows up in the stock market,” Norquist said. “It shows up in people freezing willingness to hire or buy new things or take your thoughts. That makes what we've been talking about today moving quickly to get the entire Trump tax cut passed and made permanent … Even if we've taken the temperature down on tariffs, we still need the long-term ability of businesses to feel comfortable.”

Still, the broad sense of relief was a somewhat rare public acknowledgement of the right wing opposition to Trump’s tariff regime.

For a conservative ecosystem built on free-market fundamentalism and a reflexive aversion to tax increases, there had been remarkably little vocal outrage about the Liberation Day tariffs that sent markets reeling.

Club for Growth, for instance, made a mention of the tariffs in a March 31 memo to Capitol Hill Republicans ahead of the tariff announcement that economic volatility from tariffs could endanger their majorities in 2026 — unless, it argued, Republicans can advance “pro-growth action” through the tax cut extension.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts went as far as saying that reciprocal tariffs — combined with “deregulation, tax cuts, and fiscal restraint” — “may not please the globalist elites, but it’s the right prescription to rebuild our economy and restore prosperity for the forgotten men and women of this country.”

There is a clear political reason for others being much more quiet with their tariff opposition. While they are vehemently ideologically opposed to Trump’s style of economic protectionism, many of the organizations on the right are banking on working with Trump to get wins on other key issues, such as the tax cuts.

I had chatted with Tim Chapman, president of the Advancing American Freedom, about that dynamic in the conservative movement earlier in the day, before news of the pause. His group — which was founded by former Vice President Mike Pence — is more regularly critical of Trump and in an easier position to advocate against the tariffs, and launched a six-figure campaign against the tariffs earlier in the week. 

“This is testing the limits of peoples’ willingness to demonstrate fealty to Trump. And I think you're seeing people are uncomfortable with it, but they're still willing to not rock the boat,” Chapman said, adding: “Opposing him on this, you can get significant pushback.”

There also seems to be a healthy dose of not believing Trump has a faith-like commitment to keeping tariffs in place, choosing to “trust the plan.”

“This wasn't a longer term strategy of his to keep tariffs out there. I don't think he believes that that would be good for this country,” Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Job Creators Network who was also at the press conference, told me after the tariff pause announcement. “But as a negotiation tool, look, he did get 75 countries to come to the table within what, one week.”

“Sometimes you have to have a leap of faith and just know that a plan is out there,” Ortiz said.

I’m Emily Brooks, House leadership reporter at The Hill, here with a weekly look at the influences and debates on the right in Washington. Tell me what’s on your radar: ebrooks@thehill.com

DARING TO DEFY TRUMP: House Republicans who claim to be some of the president’s strongest supporters are defying his wishes to support the Senate version of the budget resolution framework that will tee up Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda, despite his very direct urging to do so.

Their opposition forced Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to pull a scheduled vote on the resolution on Wednesday evening, after a large huddle with members in a room off the House floor — which lasted for longer than an hour while an unrelated vote was held open — did not result in an immediate solution to the fiscal hawks’ demands. More on that from my colleague Mychael Schnell here.

The list of holdouts outraged about the Senate’s piddly levels for cuts includes many members of the House Freedom Caucus, including Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) — who once told me that “pound for pound,” the hardline conservative group has the strongest supporters of Trump “anywhere in Washington.” 

Yet in an eyebrow-raising move, Harris declined an invitation to attend an Oval Office meeting with Trump and other House Republicans on the budget resolution this week: “Let the president spend time with people whose minds he might change. He’s just not going to change my mind about this.”

It’s also a signal that Trump pressure alone will not be able to whip the fractious, razor-thin majority — at least not when there is substantial opposition rather than criticisms from just one or two holdouts, like with the initial House vote on its version of the budget resolution in February.

Johnson and the holdouts seemed to be getting close to a solution on Wednesday night. But a major question is if there will be any repercussions from Trump over the speed bump — maybe primary threats, loss of access — unless, that is, he too wrapped up in the fallout from his tariff regime change to be bothered by the latest House GOP drama.

THREE MORE THINGS…

1. Pence sat down with my colleague Brett Samuels on Wednesday shortly after Trump announced his tariff pause. The former vice president described the second Trump administration as “off to a good start” but called the tariffs a “misstep.”

“I don’t think the American people were voting for what would amount to the largest peacetime tax hike in American history, which, the tariffs that were announced last week, if left in place, would certainly be, and the hardship they’d place on working families and businesses large and small,” Pence said.

2. The Department of Homeland Security announced that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “will begin considering aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests.”

3. Speaker Johnson still reads the Drudge Report: NOTUS snagged a pic of the Speaker checking the headlines during Trump’s speech at the NRCC dinner Tuesday night. (Which also ended up on Drudge.) 

Bonus for making it to the end: Johnson as the “This Is Fine” meme, courtesy of AI.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think: ebrooks@thehill.com