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Watchdog Says Trump Tariff Pause Lays Bare 'Just One More Con on Working People'
"All he has shown is that he'll cave to Wall Street's hand-wringing and prioritize his own power over real people's plight," said one expert at Public Citizen.
Apr 09, 2025
"Trump's 'will he, won't he' tariff chaos is just one more con on working people."
That's what Melinda St. Louis, Global Trade Watch director at the watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a Wednesday statement after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-pause for what he has called "reciprocal" tariffs, excluding China.
"He claimed that the so-called 'reciprocal tariffs' would protect American jobs, but these reckless tariffs were never designed to do that," she said of Trump. "He just wants to wield threats as a schoolyard bully while giving his billionaire buddies sweetheart deals."
St. Louis warned that "when he says he's going to 'negotiate,' he means more harmful free trade agreements that double down on the failed trade model he claims to oppose and that force countries to gut public interest protections for the benefit of Big Tech, Big Pharma, and other corporate giants."
"Who's left out of his megalomaniacal game? The workers he claimed to support."
"And he wants U.S. companies to beg for exemptions from his tariffs, as they did in his first term. This is all part of Trump's authoritarianism and corruption, forcing countries and businesses to bend the knee just as he is doing with law firms and universities," she stressed. "Who's left out of his megalomaniacal game? The workers he claimed to support. All he has shown is that he'll cave to Wall Street's hand-wringing and prioritize his own power over real people's plight."
St. Louis wasn't alone in continuing to blast Trump's tactics around tariffs, which have led some economists to conclude that the president does not actually even understand how international trade works.
"It took a month to 'negotiate a deal,' but it only took one day for Trump to hit the brakes on his nonsensical new tax on autos from Canada and Mexico," Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a Wednesday statement. "This endless flip-flopping and bluster is just further proof that Donald Trump has no economic strategy beyond slapping tariffs on our trading partners."
"Instead of coming up with a real plan to get American workers a fair shake, he's making the United States into an international joke and driving up prices for U.S. consumers," he added. "If Republicans in Congress allow him to keep this up, Trump will keep yo-yoing on tariffs and using threats to pressure U.S. companies to stay in line instead of fighting back against this senseless economic war on American families."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a longtime critic of "disastrous unfettered free trade deals," said in a lengthy statement that "targeted tariffs can be a powerful tool to stop corporations from outsourcing American jobs... But Trump's chaotic across-the-board tariffs are not the way to do it."
"What Trump is doing is unconstitutional. Trump has claimed supposed 'emergency' powers to bypass Congress and impose unilateral tariffs on hundreds of countries... This is another step toward authoritarianism," the senator asserted. "And let's be clear about why Trump is doing all this: to give massive tax breaks to billionaires."
"These tariffs will cost working families thousands of dollars a year, and Trump plans to use that revenue to help pay for a huge tax break for the richest people in America. That is what Trump and Republicans in Congress are working on right now: If they have their way on the tariffs and their huge tax bill, most Americans will see their taxes go up, while those on top will get a huge tax break," he added. "Enough is enough. We need a coherent trade policy that puts working people first."
Despite warnings that the costs of his planned tariffs would be passed on to consumers, Trump unveiled the duties last week, causing stocks to plummet and fueling recession warnings and speculation that he's tanking the economy on purpose.
Trump's tariffs took effect at midnight Wednesday. By the early afternoon, the president declared a partial pause via his Truth Social platform. He said that more than 75 countries have reached out "to negotiate a solution."
In clarifying comments to reporters on Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the 10% baseline tariffs will remain in effect, but higher duties targeting various nations are suspended. He also reiterated that the administration's message is, "Do not retaliate, and you will be rewarded."
The exception to the pause is China, which initially hit back by announcing 34% import duties on American goods last Friday. Faced with Trump's 104% rate on Wednesday, China hiked that to 84% and imposed restrictions on 18 U.S. companies.
Trump wrote on social media Wednesday that "based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World's Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately."
The Chinese government issued a travel advisory on Wednesday, saying in a statement, "Recently, due to the deterioration of China-U.S. economic and trade relations and the domestic security situation in the United States, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism reminds Chinese tourists to fully assess the risks of traveling to the United States and be cautious."
The Hill reported that during a Wednesday press briefing, Lin Jian, China's Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said that "the U.S. is seeking hegemony in the name of reciprocity, sacrificing the legitimate interests of all countries to serve its own selfish interests, and prioritizing the U.S. over international rules. This is typical unilateralism, protectionism, and economic bullying."
"The abuse of tariffs by the United States is tantamount to depriving countries, especially those in the Global South, of their right to development," he added.
Before Trump announced the pause, the European Union was planning to respond to Trump's steel tariffs with "levies of up to 25% on a sweeping list of U.S. products," The Washington Postreported. "There was no immediate comment from the European Union, and it was unclear how Trump's latest announcement might affect the E.U. countermeasures approved Wednesday."
Although stocks soared after Trump's pause announcement, many experts remain skeptical and demanded transparency around the administration's global trade talks.
"Absent transparency about what is being demanded, we could end up with the worst of all outcomes—a bunch of bad special interest deals, all of the economic damage caused by tariff uncertainty and no trade rebalancing, U.S. manufacturing capacity, or goods jobs," said Lori Wallach, director of the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project, in a Wednesday statement.
"The Trump administration could be striking deals with dozens of countries, but absent transparency, the public will not know whether their interests or Trump's billionaire Cabinet and friends on Wall Street or his family are being served," she pointed out. "Deals must focus on addressing the mercantilist practices that some countries employ, which fuel the extreme global trade imbalances that have deindustrialized the United States and today deny the benefits of trade to numerous countries worldwide."
Wallach emphasized that "the Trump administration must not use these talks to bully countries into gutting their online privacy and Big Tech anti-monopoly policies or undermining their food safety, health, or environmental laws."
"The chaos of these whipsaw tariffs flip-flops is already causing economic chaos and losses, undermining confidence in America and our markets," she added. "Cutting deals in secret only adds to that uncertainty and risks corruption, which won't just hurt Trump's stated goal of investment in U.S. manufacturing but the economy as a whole."
While experts like Wallach call for transparency in the tariff process, many congressional Republicans are working to further empower Trump. Nearly all GOP members of the U.S House of Representatives
voted Wednesday for a rule that blocks lawmakers' ability to force a vote on repealing the president's import duties for 90 days.
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'Enough Is Enough': Dems Aim to Force GOP on Record as Trump Tariffs Wreak Havoc
"Republicans can't keep ducking the vote on these taxes," said Rep. Gregory Meeks. "It is time they take a vote and show their constituents whether or not they support the 'economic pain' President Trump is inflicting."
Apr 09, 2025
Congressional Democrats—and a small but growing number of Republicans—are throwing their support behind last-ditch legislative efforts to wrest tariff authority from U.S. President Donald Trump as he unilaterally plunges the nation into a full-blown global trade war, with potentially catastrophic consequences for workers, businesses, and the worldwide economy.
"Enough is enough," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Tuesday, accusing the president of "driving our economy into recession, killing jobs, and wiping out seniors' retirement funds as we speak."
Wyden and several other senators—including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and a lone Republican, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)—introduced a privileged resolution Tuesday that would terminate the national emergency that Trump declared last week to impose sweeping tariffs on countries across the globe, including major U.S. allies and trading partners.
"Donald Trump's reckless agenda will hurt American families, small businesses, and manufacturers," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a co-sponsor of the resolution. "The Trump tariffs are economic sabotage, and Congress has the power to stop them. Republicans can join Democrats and end this today."
House Democrats, led by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), are pursuing a similar resolution.
"Republicans can't keep ducking the vote on these taxes," Meeks and other leading House Democrats said in a statement Tuesday. "It is time they take a vote and show their constituents whether or not they support the 'economic pain' President Trump is inflicting on American families."
"This is a self-own, a crisis dictated by one authoritarian with a ridiculous way of seeing the world."
Under GOP control, Congress has effectively ceded the power of the purse to the Trump administration, allowing it to unlawfully withhold approved spending and rush ahead with what's been described as the largest tax hike in U.S. history.
But in recent days, facing increasingly furious backlash across American society—including billionaire hedge fund managers, retirees, and small business owners who fear they may have to close their doors—some Republicans have expressed support for legislative efforts to rein in Trump's ability to impose tariffs without congressional approval.
The Hillreported Tuesday that at least seven Senate Republicans have signed on to a bipartisan bill that would place limits on presidential tariff authority, including a provision under which any new tariff would lapse after 60 days if not approved by Congress.
Additionally, according to Axios, "at least a dozen House Republicans are considering signing onto Rep. Don Bacon's (R-Neb.) bill to restrict the White House's ability to impose tariffs unilaterally."
Thus far, though, not enough Republicans have publicly backed the legislative push to rein in Trump, who has threatened to veto the bipartisan Senate legislation.
The growing legislative push to slow or reverse Trump's tariff spree comes as China announced Wednesday that it is slapping U.S. goods with an 84% duty in retaliation for the president's decision to dramatically hike tariffs on imports from the world's second-largest economy.
Tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S. now total at least 104%.
"The U.S. approach of upgrading tariffs on China is wrong, seriously violating China's legitimate rights and interests, and seriously undermining the rules-based multilateral trading system," China's Finance Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
The American Prospect's David Dayen wrote Wednesday that China's retaliation makes "clear that at least with respect to the world's largest manufacturer, a trade war is far more likely."
"It's important to note that a reversal of course on tariffs would mitigate a lot of the damage, which is why Congress putting on the pressure for that reversal is important," Dayen added. "This is a self-own, a crisis dictated by one authoritarian with a ridiculous way of seeing the world. But Trump's policies were driving the country into a ditch since Inauguration Day, setting the stage for the fear and doubt we're seeing right now."
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New Projected Cost of Trump-GOP Tax Cuts for the Rich: 'Staggering' $7 Trillion
"What Republicans are trying to jam through Congress right now is a level of economic recklessness we’ve never seen before," said a group of Democratic lawmakers.
Apr 04, 2025
A new analysis indicates Republicans' plan to extend soon-to-expire provisions of their party's 2017 tax law, as well as their push to tack on additional tax breaks largely benefiting the rich and big corporations, would cost $7 trillion over the next decade, a figure that a group of congressional Democrats called "staggering."
The analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), published on Thursday, updates previous estimates that suggested the GOP effort to extend expiring provisions of the 2017 law would cost $4.6 trillion over a 10-year period. The new assessment shows that extending the law's temporary provisions—which disproportionately favored the wealthy—would cost $5.5 trillion over the next decade.
The projected cost of the GOP agenda balloons to $7 trillion after adding Senate Republicans' call for $1.5 trillion in additional tax cuts in the budget resolution they advanced in a party-line vote on Thursday. The GOP has come under fire for using an accounting trick to claim their proposed tax cuts would have no budgetary impact.
"The Republican handouts to billionaires and corporations will come at a staggering cost, and it's unconscionable that their plan to pay for those handouts includes kicking millions of Americans off their health insurance, hiking the cost of living with tariffs, and driving up child hunger," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said in a joint statement issued in response to the JCT figures.
"Even after making painful cuts that will inflict hardship on typical American families, Republicans will still risk sending us into a catastrophic debt spiral that does permanent harm to our economy," the Democrats added. "What Republicans are trying to jam through Congress right now is a level of economic recklessness we've never seen before."
The JCT's updated cost analysis came as President Donald Trump plowed ahead with what's been characterized as the biggest tax hike in U.S. history, one that will hit working-class Americans in the form of price increases on household staples and other goods.
Trump administration officials, not known for providing reliable numbers, have claimed the president's sweeping new tariffs could produce roughly $6 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade. The Trump tariffs have sent financial markets into a tailspin, heightened recession fears, and prompted swift retaliation from targeted nations, including China.
In an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday, Boyle—the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee—said Trump's tariffs represent "the single largest tax increase in American history."
"It's a tax that everyone will pay in this country, based on the goods that they buy," said Boyle. "However, it's also a tax that is highly regressive—the poorest amongst us will end up paying a higher percentage of their income."
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the analysis was conducted by the Congressional Budget Office. It was conducted by the Joint Committee on Taxation.
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