“We’ve got the whole world up in arms against us when we need the whole world working with us to push back on China,” Sen. Ron Johnson said. “Where is the success of the negotiations?” | Win McNamee/Getty Images Congress Republicans wage trade war against Trump The conflict between GOP senators and the president is coming to a head.

Republicans are finally reaching their breaking point with President Donald Trump on trade.

One faction of GOP senators is pushing Sen. Bob Corker's (R-Tenn.) legislation that would allow Congress to block Trump's tariffs — which Trump is trying to kill before it comes to the Senate floor. Another group is holding private meetings with Trump, hoping it can convince him via back-channel negotiations to back off a brewing trade war with U.S. allies before Congress steps in.


However this episode ends, Trump’s decision to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on Mexico, Canada and Europe has brought a long-simmering conflict with congressional Republicans to a head. And the party is now fretting that Trump's policies could hurt the economy and divide the GOP just five months before the midterm elections.

“We’ve got the whole world up in arms against us when we need the whole world working with us to push back on China. Where is the success of the negotiations?” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who is working with Corker to secure a vote on a proposal that he predicted could pass the Senate. “He’s very good at rounding up votes.”

Most Republicans agree with Johnson and Corker that the tariffs hitting allies are too broad. As Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) put it on Wednesday: “The policy continues to be incredibly stupid.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Koch Industries both endorsed Corker’s plan on Wednesday.

But there is a sharp split in the caucus over whether to antagonize the president, and some congressional Republicans could back off if Trump throws them a bone by exempting Canada for now. They think it would counterproductive to attach Corker’s bill as an amendment to the national defense bill, which could halt the must-pass legislation and undermine Trump’s negotiating position while he tries to forge a new deal for the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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Though supporters of the Corker legislation are optimistic it can pass, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told SiriusXM late Wednesday that he opposes the bill and called it an “exercise in futility” that the president won’t sign — potentially dooming its prospects.

So instead of pushing the Corker amendment, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) met quietly with Trump on Tuesday and gently urged the president to take a friendlier stance toward allies. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) brought another delegation of Senate Republicans to the White House on Wednesday afternoon who are also using a softer approach.

“We’re getting major concessions right now,” Perdue said of NAFTA negotiations and other trade deals Trump is pressing for. “The president’s got the attention of the world. For us to confuse that right now with the Corker amendment I think would really do harm to the momentum we have with these negotiations.”

Corker certainly has the attention of the president. Trump called Corker on Wednesday morning to dissuade the GOP senator from filing an amendment targeting his tariff powers.

“He feels like it takes away his negotiating ability. It doesn’t do that at all, it allows him to continue on and do exactly what he’s doing just with our approval. I explained that,” said Corker, who is retiring at the end of the year. “He just called to express a difference of opinion.”

But the Tennessee senator is unbowed and introduced his amendment to the defense bill on Wednesday afternoon with a bipartisan group of senators. And after a spirited discussion at Wednesday’s GOP lunch, it appears Corker might be able to get a vote sometime late this week or early next week.

Most GOP senators at the lunch privately agreed that Corker should get his vote, one attendee said, though it’s unclear whether it will pass. If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Trump apply maximum pressure they may be successful in holding supporters of Corker’s amendment under 60 votes.

“Most of us believe those tariffs are too broad but we’d like to tell the president we want to have his back in having a better deal. And give us an idea about what a better deal will look like,” Graham said. “A lot of people agree, intellectually, with Bob.”

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who is managing the defense bill in the absence of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said after the lunch that Corker’s bill would get a vote.

“It will. And I have no objection. Look, I’m in agreement with Corker,” Inhofe said. “The likelihood of passing something isn’t all that great. But they need a vote.”

A number of Republicans are on the fence, aware that they might not need to take a position if the Senate’s amendment process on the defense bill falls apart and Corker never gets his vote. The Senate hasn’t taken an amendment vote on the floor since March, and any one senator can object to amendment deals.

Still, it will be difficult to make the case that the defense bill is the wrong place to litigate the issue: Trump is using national security as his justification for the tariffs. And congressional Republicans are broadly disgusted with them, worried they will increase costs for Americans and slow down the economy right before the midterms. McConnell has warned that they “will not be good for the economy.”

Yet Trump’s popularity among Republicans could limit the number of GOP senators willing to take on the president, and McConnell has ruled out a standalone vote on Corker’s proposal.

“Senators have concerns about doing something the president doesn’t like. Unfortunately that’s the way it is,” Corker said. “No one has yet disagreed with the policy. The difference is on the politics.”

But Republicans are openly struggling with how to reconcile their long-held support for free trade with the political implications of crossing the president.

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Corker’s bill starts with the support of four Senate Democrats plus GOP Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Mike Lee of Utah, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Johnson. Several other Republicans are considering sponsoring it.

Ultimately under Corker’s bill, the Senate would have to provide 60 votes to give Trump the ability to apply tariffs based on national security implications. That’s too high a threshold for Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who said he’d prefer a simple majority.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said he could change his mind if he thought Trump was leading the country into economic doom, but for now he still believes that “the president is too smart to get us into a trade war.” And Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said it might not matter what individual Republicans think of Corker’s proposal as long as Trump opposes it.

“The important thing for me is not the Corker amendment. It’s what this trade cycle looks like, its impact on South Carolina,” said Scott, who joined Perdue at the White House on Tuesday. “Getting something through that he can veto doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend a lot of time on to me.”

Elana Schor contributed to this report.

