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Republicans quietly breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Friday — but that feeling may prove fleeting.
The court's decision to upend Trump’s global tariffs comes as affordability concerns and the cost of living continue to galvanize voters ahead of the midterms. Many free trade-friendly Republicans spent the past year worrying that the tariffs would drive prices higher, destabilize the economy and hurt their hopes of hanging onto control of Congress this November.
“It's very possible that the Supreme Court just threw Trump's economy a life preserver, and the president is refusing it and demanding an anchor. These tariffs economically have not played well into the affordability narrative,” said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump State Department official. “It just has not been helpful — full stop.”
Trump’s hard line on tariffs has proven particularly difficult for some GOP candidates to navigate in battleground states where manufacturing and agricultural industries have been hit the hardest by the trade measures. Several of Trump’s allies in farm country and Republicans encouraged him to pump the brakes Friday and reassess his path forward.
But the president’s announcement of a 10 percent global tariff immediately after the ruling had them back on their guard.
“We have very powerful alternatives,” Trump said in a press conference Friday afternoon, announcing he will sign the new tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 – and rejecting the possibility of legislating a new measure through Congress. "I don't need to,” he said. “It's already been approved."
Only minutes earlier, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had suggested in a post on X thatCongress would work with the administration to find “the best path forward.”
Polling shows that Trump’s tariffs are broadly unpopular. A 45 percent plurality of Americans said in a November POLITICO Poll that higher tariffs are damaging the U.S. economy — in both the short and long term. That view falls along partisan lines, with Democrats far more likely to say the levies are damaging the U.S. economy.
Still, roughly a quarter of Trump’s own 2024 voters agree. Among Republicans who do not identify as “MAGA” — a much more malleable group of voters — opposition to the levies rose. Thirty-two percent of non-MAGA Republicans said the higher tariffs are damaging the economy in both the short and the long term, compared with just 21 percent of self-identifying MAGA Republicans.
Despite Americans’ overall disapproval of the White House’s tariff agenda, Trump remains bullish on his approach.
“Without tariffs, this country would be in such trouble right now,” he said in a Thursday speech before a crowd gathered at a factory in northwest Georgia. “I’ve won affordability,” he added.
But the uncertainty around what comes next on tariffs has some Republicans questioning why the administration didn’t go through Congress from the start, instead choosing a legally riskier route that has left at least a temporary vacuum at the heart of their economic agenda in an election year.
“Why must we fuck ourselves?” rhetorically asked one GOP official, who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak openly about their concerns with the White House’s economic agenda. “He should’ve gotten congressional approval. Now it’s destabilized the economy.”
Before the ruling, while Congressional Republicans had occasionally grumbled about the policy, they had largely fallen in line when actually required to vote on it. Now, the Supreme Court’s decision could put more pressure on them to break with the president.
“You have so much overlap between people who support the president, and people who are hurt worst by the tariffs themselves,” said one longtime GOP strategist in Iowa. “That’s why the criticism has always been somewhat muted.”
Democratic candidates are quickly taking advantage of that. DCCC spokesperson Courtney Rice said the decision “makes crystal clear the need for Congress to exercise its constitutional authority over trade policy.”
Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat running for Senate in Michigan, said “the damage has already been done” by the tariffs. And Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), running for Senate, released a statement saying his opponents “are running to push Donald Trump’s agenda,” whereas he will work to “rectify the damage that Trump’s tariffs have caused our state.”
Even historically protectionist-leaning Democrats took shots at Trump. Former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said in the ruling’s wake that his opponent, Sen. John Husted (R-Ohio), was “once again doubling down on his support for reckless tariffs that are raising costs and sending Ohio farmers into bankruptcy.” (Husted, for his part, said in a statement that he respects the court’s decision.)
"Not only do voters hate these tariffs because they've raised costs, but now the Supreme Court has said they're illegal,” said Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson. “Every Republican in 2026 has a Scarlett ‘T’ on their chest."
Some Republicans had already publicly questioned the president’s authority to unilaterally impose blanket duties on trading partners without seeking approval from Congress. For them, the ruling proved a win on constitutional grounds.
“I feel vindicated as I’ve been saying this for the last 12 months,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) on X, one of the few House Republicans who has repeatedly opposed Trump’s tariffs. “In the future, Congress should defend its own authorities and not rely on the Supreme Court.”
Six House Republicans voted alongside Democrats last week to condemn Trump’s tariffs on Canada, sending the measure to the Senate, which has already seen significant GOP defection in other votes on the duty measures. Senior House Democrats have vowed to bring up at least three more similar resolutions that will force GOP members to choose between their adherence to free trade principles and their MAGA base.
“There are a lot of members of Congress excited to see that the tariffs are temporarily not in effect. It has been a pinch at home and it’s been hard to message around,” added one Republican strategist involved with House races. “It gives them some breathing room. It gives them a little bit more leeway in that affordability message.”
In agriculture-heavy states, the tariffs have been felt acutely in recent months. The Trump administration approved a $12 billion bailout for farmers in December and Hill Republicans are considering a second tranche, though that has yet to pass.
American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall — a frequent ally of Trump’s — released a statement Friday afternoon urging Trump to pump the brakes.
“With supply costs already at or near record highs, we strongly encourage the president to avoid using any other available authorities to impose tariffs on agricultural inputs that would further increase costs,” Duvall said. “America’s farmers and ranchers need stability to ensure families across America can put food on their tables.”
It’s a long time until November’s midterms. But in battleground races where tariffs pinched the most, the recent memory of trade adventurism and the ongoing dissatisfaction with the current state of the economy could prove fatal for Republicans, said Wisconsin-based GOP strategist Craig Peterson.
“In this last year with all the tariffs and increased costs, it's going to take a little while for folks to forget about that,” Peterson said, noting Election Day is less than nine months away. “That's not real long, unfortunately, for the Republicans.”
Erin Doherty, Elena Schneider, Lisa Kashinsky and Adam Wren contributed reporting.
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