President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs didn’t even last a week before he announced he was pausing nearly all of them, save for steep new tariff duties on China. Now, one stalwart conservative who opposes free trade is now acknowledging his wing of the GOP may not have much political capital left to spend if Trump’s plan doesn’t pay off.
On Wednesday — the same day Trump announced the vast bulk of his new trade duties would be postponed for 90 days — Politico published an interview with Oren Cass, who is the founder of the right-wing protectionist think tank American Compass. According to Politico’s Sam Sutton, the rift between the pro-tariff side of the GOP and Republicans who believe in free trade policies could lead to a “knives out’ confrontation targeting protectionists if the political consequences are too much for the GOP to bear.
“A plan done poorly that imposes politically unsustainable costs, and therefore loses favor with the public, obviously undermines the long-term goal of effecting this kind of change,” Cass said.
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“I don’t think there is a problem with doing things that have costs,” he continued. “The problem is with failing to properly communicate the nexus between the problem to be solved and costs to be borne, and not being able to draw a through line from problem to action to the future.”
Cass is well-connected in the modern Republican Party, with ties to Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, His organization was one of the advisory groups connected to the Heritage Foundation’s far-right Project 2025 initiative. While he applauded Trump for taking the first step in reorienting global trade, he acknowledged that the president had “done a few things that impose more costs than are necessary.”
“When you have a strategy that’s going to impose some upfront costs before you get to the benefits, it’s really important to both substantively and politically to do what you can to minimize those costs — and make sure you’re really going to deliver fully on the benefits,” he said. “The abruptness of all tariffs going into effect immediately, the uncertainty about what is temporary versus permanent and the lack of clarity about the long-term vision — what they actually see as the end stage and how to get from here to there — are all real challenges that pose real risks to the project.”
According to Fox Business’ Charles Gasparino, Trump’s decision to halt the tariffs from going to effect may have been prompted by Japan contemplating selling off some of its estimated $1.26 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities. While the stock market was rattled by the sudden imposition of new import taxes, the bond market is considered the beating heart of global trade. And if a major institutional investor like Japan chose to sell off its U.S. Treasury securities, it could potentially jeopardize both the economy along with the U.S. dollar’s standing as the global reserve currency.
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Click here to read Politico’s full article.
