Republican senators are sounding the alarm as President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten GOP political prospects in 2026, the Hill reports.
“In the national elections, you can go back to 1982 when I think it was about 26 congressional seats that were lost [by Republicans],” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told the Hill.
“No doubt, if we’re having the same discussions about tariffs in February of next year, all the indicators would be ‘wrong track,’” Tillis said.
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The Republican senator, who’s up for reelection in 2026, argued the Trump administration has “about 10 months to wrap a bow around this and say, ‘See, I told you so,’ or you’re going to start seeing political headwinds."
According to the Hill, “A senior Senate Republican aide who requested anonymity said that Trump risks fumbling his best issue in the 2024 election, the economy, which was voters’ top priority last year.”
“Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is warning fellow Republicans that they could face landslide defeats next year if they don’t change course on trade, which he says could trigger a severe economic recession,” the Hill reports. “Paul pointed out that the authors of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act — Sens. Reed Smoot (R-UT) and Willis Hawley (R-OR) — were both defeated in the 1932 election.”
“We went into the wilderness for a long, long time,” Paul said. “The depression was multifactorial, but most historians have written that that Smoot-Hawley tariff actually made things worse and the depression longer.
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“I don’t think the politics are good,” Paul added. “The economics of tariffs are bad; the politics, if anything, are worse.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) likewise said Trump[s tariffs on Canada “make no sense,”
“I never thought that putting tariffs on friendly countries that are our allies is the way to go,” she said.
“I remember [in] the first administration talking with Peter Navarro about the impact on the lobster industry. There are times when tariffs are appropriate. I think China is an example of that. The Canadian tariffs make no sense,” she said. “This is the position I’ve had for a very long time.”
Read the full report at the Hill.
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