'Panicked calls': Trump’s own advisers 'unnerved' by 'horrific start for the economic policy team'
U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) speaks to reporters after the Senate was scheduled to vote on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 13, 2025. REUTERS/Tierney L. Cross
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to adjust a quote.
President Donald Trump’s changing tariff policies are creating unease among his own allies, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Senior officials in the White House are consulting with business leaders and lobbyists to soften Trump’s rhetoric as those impacted by his policies work behind the scenes instead of directly with Trump.
As the Journal reported, “In a meeting Monday in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, the president and his top advisers huddled with the chief executive officers of International Business Machines, Qualcomm, HP and other tech companies. Some of the CEOs voiced their concerns about Trump’s tariffs, warning that they could hurt their industry, according to a person who attended the meeting. Trump told reporters that attendees at the meeting talked about investing in the U.S.”
READ MORE: How Trump is making America sick with 'highly detrimental' policies
“The mixed messages from the president and his advisers have raised concerns among some Republicans that Trump lacks a cohesive economic plan,” the WSJ added.
Former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who heads the conservative American Action Forum, told the Journal, "It has been a horrific start for the economic policy team."
"Trump’s aggressive approach to tariffs has unnerved some Trump administration economic officials," the Journal reports, noting even members of Trump’s own National Economic Council are concerned.
“The president’s economic advisers have warned him that tariffs could hurt the market and economic growth, but he has largely been undeterred,” sources told the Journal.
READ MORE: How MAGA skirts the law to 'fulfill the president’s desires' at just one federal agency
Still, the White House maintains everyone in Trump's administration on the same page.
"Every member of the Trump administration is playing from the same playbook—President Trump’s playbook—to enact an America First agenda of tariffs, tax cuts, deregulation, and the unleashing of American energy,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told the Journal.
The Journal also spoke with Republican members of Congress to gauge how Trump’s economic policies are impacting their districts.
“We don’t know what this is gonna look like tomorrow,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told the Journal. Rounds said he's "'very frustrated' by the uncertainty that the tariff agenda is foisting on farmers and businesses in his state," the report adds.
READ MORE: 'Makes no sense': Conservative WSJ slams Trump's 'splendid little tariff war' with Canada
“Business hates uncertainty,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said, pointing in part to volatility in the stock market from Trump’s tariffs.
Still, “MAGA warrior” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) downplayed the impact of Trump’s policies, telling the Journal “markets are ‘trying to digest’ the messages emanating from the White House on tariffs.”
Hagerty holds “out hope that certainty could be on the horizon,” the Journal reports.
READ MORE: 'Not exaggerating': Rachel Maddow blasts GOP for 'relinquishing' their power to Trump
