"I think there are other ways to achieve what the president elect is talking about, but the only way you can do any of this is you’ve got to have tax reform,” Kevin McCarthy said. | AP Photo Top House Republican won't back Trump's tariff proposal

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Monday refused to endorse Donald Trump’s proposal to slap tariffs on American companies that move jobs overseas — signaling that the President-elect could have trouble getting a protectionist trade agenda through Congress.

The California Republican, in a pen and pad meeting with reporters, tried to deflect multiple questions about whether Congress would pass a bill making Trump’s tariff proposal law. Such protectionist ideas are antithetical to traditional Republican values of free enterprise and competition. And while McCarthy refrained from criticizing Trump’s idea explicitly, it was clear it's not an idea he's endorsing.


“I think the point the president-elect was trying to make was he wants to create jobs in America,” McCarthy said of Trump's latest comments about tariffs. “Today, the best way to make that change is through tax reform … I think there are other ways to achieve what the president elect is talking about, but the only way you can do any of this is you’ve got to have tax reform.”

Asked if Trump’s tariff plan made him uneasy, McCarthy merely added: “I don’t want to get into some kind of trade war … I think creating an incentive where you have a tax structure [that's attractive to companies ] in American, that means lower corporate taxes, you won’t have” companies leaving.

Trump ran on an anti-trade platform and over the weekend, in a Facebook post, doubled down on his tariff pitch, saying “any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S. . . . without retribution or consequence, is WRONG!”

“There will be a tax on our soon to be strong border of 35 percent for these companies wanting to sell their product, cars, A.C. units etc., back across the border,” Trump wrote. “This tax will make leaving financially difficult…Please be forewarned prior to making a very expensive mistake! THE UNITED STATES IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!”

One problem? Such a tax would have to pass Congress. And congressional Republicans — at least right now — aren’t particularly interested.

The topic is sensitive and extremely awkward for top Republicans. If they back the idea, they go against their own free-market principles. Reject it, however, and they're not only going against their soon-to-be commander-in-chief, they're risking the wrath of a powerful public persona who's not afraid to slam his opponents on twitter.

Reporters returned to the topic three times over the course of the 30-minute meeting. During the second round of questions on the matter, McCarthy chuckled and cracked “I love all these kinds of questions” when pressed again on if he’d put such a tariff bill on the House floor.

Once again, he said tax reform that “encourages companies” to stay in the U.S. is “the way to solve the problem of what we’re trying to get at.”

“I think that’s a better way of solving the problem than getting into a trade war,” he said.

Asked about it a third time, McCarthy said the tariff proposal will likely be debated as part of tax reform, and waived off the significance of Trump having campaigned on the idea all of 2016.

“He also campaigned on tax reform,” McCarthy sniped. “That’s a hypothetical question. The answer would be we’re going to have tax reform. Will that debate come up in tax reform? Everyone will bring up everything in tax reform.”

“We’re going to have a lot of ideas and you can’t predetermine what will come out.”