Groups across the political spectrum were stunned Thursday that President Trump is looking to re-enter the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed 12-nation trade deal that Trump withdrew from last year.

Conservative and business groups cheered the move, while trade critics denounced it as a betrayal.

"This is great news for the American economy. TPP has some flaws, but there’s no question it would give the economy a huge boost by reducing consumer costs, making manufacturers more globally competitive, and opening up new markets for our agricultural sector. News of re-engagement is a surprising and exciting development," said Bryan Riley, director of the conservative National Taxpayers Union's free-trade Initiative.

TPP critics, by contrast, sputtered with anger. "Should reports be true that he wants to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, President Trump would once again be abandoning the millions of hard-working Americans he promised to serve," said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., calling the news "a direct slap in the face to people who voted for him expecting that he would save their jobs and deliver on economic promises such as ending outsourcing."

Trump told a contingent of Republican senators Thursday that he had provided National Economic Council Chairman Larry Kudlow and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer "the task of taking another look at TPP," Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., told reporters.

The president repeatedly railed against TPP during the 2016 election, stating at one point, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership is another disaster done and pushed by special interests who want to rape our country — just a continuing rape of our country. It’s a harsh word, but it’s true." At the time, the TPP, a deal negotiated by the Obama administration, was awaiting a vote in Congress. Opposition to it was widespread among lawmakers, and a vote was never held. An executive order pulling the U.S. out of it was one of Trump's first actions as president.

The remaining 11 countries, which include all the nations that border the Pacific Ocean except China, ratified the deal without the U.S. this year.

"Given the central role TPP opposition played in the election and Trump widely touting withdrawal from it, despite it already being dead in Congress, to declare he had delivered on a major trade promise, his reversing course could bring short-term joy to Democratic campaign operatives, but for the rest of the country it would signal that Trump does not give a crap about working people and cannot be trusted on anything," said Lori Wallach, director of the liberal Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

However, some seemed willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, expressed bafflement at the news during a speech at the National Press Club, before adding, "I would support a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement if it had three or four major components: One, that it didn't play agriculture against industrial workers, second, if workers actually had a place at the table in these negotiations, third, that we had real 'buy American' provisions allowed in these trade agreements and, fourth, that it had a strong labor chapter."