Capitol Hill Republicans have sought Trump’s leadership and guidance on the tax cuts, trying to find room for no taxes on tips and his other campaign proposals in a reconciliation bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) are hardly MAGA hard-liners, but they have worked to accommodate Trump, especially compared to former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) when he was the upper chamber’s GOP floor leader.

Trump has returned the favor. He made phone calls that helped Johnson retain the speaker’s gavel without the multiballot saga of his predecessor Kevin McCarthy. Trump also played a key role in keeping every House Republican but Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on board with a federal funding bill that kept the government open despite widespread conservative misgivings with the spending levels.

Tariffs are still an area where only a minority of congressional Republicans fully agree with Trump. They are nervous about the drop in the stock market and any rise in consumer prices. It is an open question how long they will stay patient with the president.

“I think it is a mistake to assume that we will have high tariffs in perpetuity,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Larry Kudlow on Fox Business. “I don’t think that would be good economic policy. I am not a fan of tariffs and the announcement yesterday. … Look, time is going to tell in the next month or two or three what happens.”

CBS News reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns followed Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), a frequent Trump ally, asking about the tariffs. “Stock markets are concerned, I’m concerned,” he replied. “I don’t have the president’s strongly held belief that this is absolutely what has to be done. But he’s president, I’m not, he ran on this, and I hope he’s absolutely right.”

Many Republicans are taking such a wait-and-see approach.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) compared tariffs to whiskey in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “A little whiskey under the right circumstances will refresh you. Too much whiskey under the wrong circumstances will make you drunk as a goat,” he said. “That’s why I say it’s more art than science.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a populist, told the Washington Examiner that senators should “give the president time to work.”

“If the result of yesterday’s announcement is a lot of our trading partners across the globe dramatically reduce the tariffs they charge on U.S. goods and services, and the consequence of that is the U.S. government dramatically cuts the tariffs that were announced yesterday, that would be a great outcome,” Cruz said on Fox Business. “That would be good for America.”

But the senator also acknowledged another possibility. “If the result is our trading partners jack up their tariffs and we have high tariffs everywhere, I think that is a bad outcome for America,” he continued. “Tariffs are a tax on consumers and I am not a fan of jacking up taxes on American consumers.” 

Cruz concluded, “So my hope is these tariffs are short-lived and they serve as leverage to lower tariffs across the globe.”

When the Senate narrowly voted to revoke the emergency declaration that empowered Trump to unilaterally impose tariffs, only four Republicans supported the measure. That’s not many, and even on a bipartisan basis, it’s a far cry from the veto-proof majority lawmakers would need to force a change in policy.

One of the four dissenting Republicans was McConnell, the former Senate GOP leader. “Make no mistake: goods made in America will be more expensive to manufacture and, ultimately, for consumers to purchase, with higher broad-based tariffs,” he said in a statement. “At a time when Americans are tightening their belts, we would do well to avoid policies that heap on the pain.”

If the economy sputters, the number of Republicans voting with McConnell could grow. Many senators and the whole House will need to defend their own seats in the 2026 midterm elections. Republicans believe they won last year in part because of high inflation under former President Joe Biden, making them wary of doing anything to make things more expensive now.

TRUMP BETS HIS PRESIDENCY ON TARIFFS 

Tariffs on this scale might have already produced a full-blown Republican rebellion in 2017, but the party today has more confidence in Trump’s leadership.  

We will soon see how much and whether it will last long enough to give Trump a chance to try what he is hoping to accomplish through his trade policy.