Watch: Dem Congressman Has Total Meltdown After Learning About Trump’s Tariff Pause During Hearing

On a day where President Donald Trump’s trade policies took center stage, Rep. Steven Horsford decided he wanted a piece of the action.

Horsford, a Nevada Democrat, went viral for a huffy exchange during a hearing with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in which he berated Greer for not making public the fact that Trump was considering a 90-day reduction in his tariff suite against virtually every country that wasn’t China.

Trump formally made the announcement on social media Wednesday afternoon:

( @realDonaldTrump – Post )
( Donald J. Trump – Apr 09, 2025, 1:18 PM ET )

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. At… pic.twitter.com/9Jikp9cqpy

— Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 TRUTH POSTS (@TruthTrumpPosts) April 9, 2025

This came during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing before which Greer was testifying, which gave Horsford a good excuse to act peevish for the cameras.

“How long is the pause? How many days? How many weeks?” a visibly livid Horsford asked.

“I understand it’s 90 days, I haven’t spoken to the president—” Greer began to say before Horsford interrupted.

“So, the trade representative hasn’t spoken to the president of the United States about a global reordering of trade and yet he announced it on a tweet? W-T-F? Who’s in charge?” Horsford said, adding: “It looks like your boss just pulled the rug out from under you and paused the tariffs, the taxes on the American people.”

Which is untrue in a great number of ways. First, it’s not even a or Twitter anymore, but this didn’t happen on X, it happened on . I understand that’s not what he’s concerned about, but it’s worth noting how fact-free this six-minute primal scream of political impotence was.

Second, he was upset with Greer because he didn’t disclose something that the president of the United States hadn’t disclosed yet. Is he aware how this whole presidency thing works? He’s been in Congress for a few terms now, which is to say that he’s been there long enough that he should understand four years of “Weekend at Biden’s” is an aberration in how the White House is run. Your trade representative doesn’t inadvertently blab to Congress about what you’re going to do later on in the day, week, month, or year, or else they’re no longer your trade representative. Same goes for virtually everyone else in the administration.

Nevertheless, Horsford insisted that, since Greer hadn’t disclosed the plans, he didn’t know about them.

“There’s no strategy. You just found out three seconds ago, sitting here, we saw you,” he said.

Greer, calmly, responded that Trump was “in charge” and that it’s not his job to inform Congress about everything that the executive s with him.

“I don’t disclose my conversations with the president, sir,” Greer told Horsford.

“These were specific questions we asked you all along. What’s the strategy?” Horsford shot back.

“These are real consequences for the American people and small businesses. I had a group of small businesses in my office earlier today talking about the impacts of these tariffs on aluminum and steel,” he continued.

“This is amateur hour, and it needs to stop. What does this even mean for your negotiating strategy? How are you in charge of negotiation if the president is tweeting about this from wherever the hell he is?”

“The president was elected, and he runs the trade policy, and I advise him and execute his trade policy,” Greer responded.

Well, duh, but Horsford apparently needs the donor clip. He got it, with a solid six minutes of ranting before the committee chair, Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, gaveled him for time, not granting a motion for discussion, or colloquy, raised by Horsford.

“Your time has expired and I’m more than happy to talk to you–” Smith said, before being cut off by Horsford.

“I asked if you would yield,” he said.

“And I said no,” Smith responded.

Here’s your six minutes of Horsford being big mad, internet:

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer reacts to news of 90-day pause on tariffs during hearing. pic.twitter.com/LiAZYXcTIw

— CSPAN (@cspan) April 9, 2025

As for the important question here from Horsford: “W-T-F? Who’s in charge?” Well, it’s President Donald Trump — who’s in the White House partially because America trusted him more than the prior administration on trade matters, particularly as it relates to China.

I cannot stress this enough: This is a dude who’s angry because the trade representative of the elected president, who got elected in large part because of his America First trade policies, didn’t let him in on private conversations with the president about the application of those policies. That’s it. This is the message that the left thinks will resonate with voters.

Is tariff policy a tricky game? Obviously, and it’s provided the Democrats with their best opportunity to start setting the tone for 2026, 2028, and beyond. If Horsford thinks that his best bet in contributing to this involves histrionically berating an administration official for not gossiping about his boss in front of Congress and C-SPAN cameras, he and his party deserve whatever they get.

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