Conservative Nick Catoggio is disappointed at Republicans who can’t find enough spine to oppose a Trump policy they know is terrible. But he is downright furious at Republicans who dare to claim they were just about to take a stand.
“The only thing more pathetic than licking the president’s boots is licking them while swearing that you’ve almost — almost, but not quite — gotten sick of the taste,” Catoggio said in the Dispatch.
After the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling, GOP sources bravely told Axios (from their shield of anonymity) that the GOP legislature was just gearing up to limit President Donald Trump’s tariff authority even if the court failed to save them. A “messy full-scale revolt on the issue was just around the corner,” those sources told Axios. And according to one senior House Republican, “Patience was running thin, and in some respects the Supreme Court decision makes a messy breakup unnecessary."
“I’ve gotten used to cowardice from congressional Republicans, but I’ll never get used to horses—— like this,” said Catoggio. “… We’ve been waiting 11 years, through a coup attempt and four criminal indictments, for a ‘full-scale revolt’ against Donald Trump by right-wing invertebrates in Washington that has never come. If Axios’ source really did believe that revolt was ‘just around the corner,’ one would think, he wouldn’t have insisted on being quoted anonymously.”
But hours after the court destroyed Trump’s authority under “emergency powers,” the president issued an executive order imposing a 10 percent global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.
“He raised it to 15 percent a day later, just because,” said Catoggio, but Trump's authority expires automatically after 150 days unless Congress votes to extend them.
“That means the deadline for Trump’s new tariff authority will detonate like a grenade in the House and Senate in late July, with the midterm campaign in full swing,” said Catoggio. “Interestingly, most state primaries will be over by then, theoretically freeing nearly all congressional Republicans to oppose the tariffs without fear of losing their party’s endorsement this cycle.”
Nothing, then, should stop Republicans from finally ending the agony, argued Catoggio — only they likely won’t because their president might “throw a gigantic tantrum” and urge right-wing voters to stay home in the general election just to punish “disloyal” Republicans.
“Side with the tariff-hating American majority or with the tariff-loving vindictive Peronist autocrat: That’s the intriguing dilemma that House and Senate Republicans will face this summer, 100 or so days out from a national election,” said Catoggio. “How likely is it that the ‘full-scale revolt’ we’re forever being promised might arrive at last in July? Not very, I think.”
“So long as craven House and Senate Republicans have a say in the matter, there will be no revolt,” said Catoggio. “The tongue-shining will continue.”