House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has personally spoken with President Donald Trump and tried to warn him of the economic dangers of entering a trade war as well as the political backlash that could crush Republicans in the mid-terms elections. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images Republicans blitz Trump to head off tariffs Paul Ryan and other GOP lawmakers are lobbying Trump to reverse course — and weighing action if necessary.

Congressional Republicans are making an eleventh-hour push to walk President Donald Trump back from the brink on tariffs, arguing that such levies would undercut his economic message.

And some are even privately considering action to stop him.


Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has personally spoken with the president and tried to warn him of the economic dangers of entering a trade war as well as the political backlash that could crush Republicans in the mid-terms elections. House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) has met with Trump at the White House twice in the past week to discuss a narrower approach to countering China's overproduction of steel — one that would not undercut U.S. allies, Brady said.

And Republicans across the spectrum have been sending Trump an urgent message: slow down.

"He's going to get a lot of resistance on this. It's a big deal," said No. 3 Senate Republican John Thune of South Dakota.



Added Senate Majority John Cornyn (R-Texas): “This is not a real estate transaction. While you could maybe walk away from a real estate transaction, we really can’t walk away from these trade agreements without jeopardizing the economy.”

So desperate are Republicans to stop the president that they're even considering whether they could tie his hands legislatively — though that seems unlikely. There is very little recourse for Congress short of rewriting a 1962 law underpinning U.S. trade policy, which lawmakers are discussing but is no easy slam-dunk, according to a congressional aide working on the matter.

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Republicans could also block a three-year renewal of the administration’s Trade Promotion Authority later this year, an extraordinary step given that Republicans voted three years ago to give then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, such power. Taking it from Trump, the leader of their own party, would be risky and could sour the Hill GOP -White House relationship fast.

“The president’s got to come to us for approval on trade issues and we could do a resolution of disapproval," Cornyn said of the idea. "I think that’s all a little bit premature until he makes his final decision."

The GOP lobbying effort comes as the White House prepares to slap a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum as soon as this week. A Saturday tweet by Trump suggested that he might even go beyond that and impose tariffs on European cars.

Republicans fear a trade war — which Trump last week said would be “good” and “easy to win” — will undermine the economy and increase the cost of goods for voters. Indeed, a new report released Monday by the Trade Partnership Worldwide, a private analytical firm, found that the tariffs would mean sacrificing 180,000 jobs in the broader U.S. economy. Other conservative economists have argued those numbers could reach the millions.

“We are extremely worried about the consequences of a trade war and are urging the White House to not advance with this plan,” said Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong in a Monday morning statement. “The new tax reform law has boosted the economy and we certainly don't want to jeopardize those gains.”

There's also a political component to Republicans' pitch to Trump.

Party leaders already see a rocky path to maintaining their House and Senate majorities in this fall's mid-term elections. They're hoping to run on a booming economy, with their tax cuts padding voters' wallets. Anything that jeopardizes that message — from skyrocketing prices to U.S. companies facing retaliatory embargoes from other countries — would be problematic.

The preference, for now, among Republicans is to change the president’s mind and avoid an epic clash between the congressional GOP and the White House, said Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Hatch plans to send Trump a letter later this week and then speak to the president directly about what he says would be a “real mistake” by Trump.

“He’s got a few days to think this through. And I think he will. But I totally disagreed with that one staffer down there who is, in my opinion, misleading the president,” said Hatch in a reference to Peter Navarro, a top White House official who swayed Trump toward the tariffs. “Navarro should know better.”

Brady and trade subcommittee chairman Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) have also drafted a letter to Trump expressing worry about “the prospect of broad, global tariffs on aluminum and steel imports,” said Lauren Aronson, a Ways and Means spokeswoman. The letter, Brady said, also encourages Trump to narrow his tariffs on bad actors and China specifically.

"[T]he president has an opportunity to tailor these [tariffs] in a way that can strengthen the U.S. economy, and I think it's important that he weigh carefully the recommendations we’re making," Brady told reporters Monday.

Not all Republicans agree on how to talk Trump down from the trade war ledge. Some say blasting him publicly will only make him dig in on protectionist measures, a central component of his 2016 campaign.

In contrast to Ryan’s unusually aggressive statement on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said nothing about the tariffs. He’ll likely be asked at his weekly press conference on Tuesday — and Republicans hope that by then, Trump will have changed his mind.

Republicans in the past have had success in reining in the president when he meanders outside of traditional Republican norms. They walked him back on immigration and his embrace of gun control measures in the past few weeks alone.

But if that doesn’t work, Republican could consider congressional action.

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress jurisdiction over trade, but lawmakers have ceded some of their authority to the president.

Congress could try to pass a veto-proof bill to block the tariffs from going into effect. But getting two-thirds of both the House and the Senate to vote for such a measure could be tough, especially because many Rust Belt Democrats, and even some Republicans, favor taking some action against steel imports.

Another option would be to try include a measure blocking the tariffs in a piece of legislation that Trump feels he must sign, such as a bill to fund the government that Congress needs to pass later this month.

But “I'm not sure that they could succeed in doing that,” said Bill Reinsch, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “That puts another issue on the table [in the funding talks]. It jeopardizes all the spending in the bill, it threatens a government shutdown — all the things that happen if you don't pass an omnibus bill.”

One other possibility would be to threaten to deny Trump a renewal of trade promotion authority, which allows him to negotiate trade deals and submit them to Congress for a straight up-or-down vote without any amendments.

Administration officials have said Trump will notify Congress by the end of this month that he wants the renewal, which would open up a 3-month window for lawmakers to block it by passing a resolution of disapproval.

However, taking that step carries some risk since it would free Trump from following congressional guidelines in negotiating trade deals, including requirements that he consult with Congress as negotiations proceed.