President Donald Trump's growing push for stiff tariffs against Chinese imports is worrying Republicans heading into this year's midterm elections, as many are starting to believe the tit-for-tat trade war is overshadowing their efforts to cut taxes and regulations, and that rising costs could negate the savings Americans will see.
“If the tariffs raise prices on American consumers, then that will negate part of the positive impact of the tax cut," The Heritage Foundation's Stephen Moore, one of the architects of Trump's campaign tax plan, told Politico." It’s the government giving the tax cut with the right hand and taking it away with the tariff with the left one."
This week, Trump announced his plans for an additional $100 billion in Chinese import tariffs, adding to the $50 billion he announced in March after China countered with its own plan for $50 billion in tariffs.
None of the tariffs have yet happened, but that hasn't stopped the stock market from fluctuating wildly.
One conservative tax lobbyist, speaking anonymously to Politico, complained that the effects of the tax cut legislation, passed in December, are being "yanked away," but "conservatives and business groups aren't sure what to do about it because no one wants to be the target of a Trump tweet."
Republican lawmakers and others were also stunned on Thursday when Trump veered away from discussion at an event advertised as being a tax cut roundtable and instead focused on a discussion on immigration, the trade deficits with China, and voter fraud.
Trump, minutes into his talks at the West Virginia event with state officials and business leaders, tossed his prepared statement into the air, called it boring, and talked about the other topics.
There was some discussion of tax cuts, including with a woman who became emotional when she told the president what the cuts meant to her, but not enough for many pundits, including Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera.
"As a supporter of the president, I wish he had stuck with his remarks about the tax cut and about the economy," Rivera said Friday morning on the "Fox and Friends" program. "I really do believe that's the secret to the midterm elections in November, to emphasize that the president's economic policies have put Americans back to work in West Virginia and everywhere else."
Politico noted that Trump's actions in West Virginia were a clear sign that he wasn't going to follow the advice of congressional leaders and GOP strategists, who also argue that it's still too early to tell how the tariffs will affect Americans.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, meanwhile, spoke with reporters several times during the week, insisting that the tariffs were a "process" and not a trade war.
Trump himself also denied there is a trade war happening, tweeting Friday that the United States already lost the war on trade years ago by "the foolish, or incompetent people who represented the U.S."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.