Republicans on Wednesday applauded President Donald Trump for postponing a reciprocal tariff arrangement, viewing it as a victory in a strategic negotiation that will ultimately improve the fair trade outlook for the U.S.
"The goal is to level the playing field for America throughout the world, to have tariffs be the same and to deal with non-tariff trade barriers," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina. "Is there a 10% surcharge that nobody else will apply to our goods? I don't know. Right now there's a pause. That's good. The countries who are asking to do new deals, that's good. China — someone should have called the question a long time ago."
The market's rally after tariffs were paused appears to have allayed some concerns among lawmakers about stock performance, but there are still questions about the long-term effects that continued baseline tariffs could have.
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Democrats have claimed that there may have been collusion between President Trump and other members of his inner circle to take advantage of his market-moving social messages.
"This is a president who changes his mind every time he has lunch," Sen. Adam Schiff, D-CA, said. "And yet there are undoubtedly some people close to him who do know what his plans are, and some that are responsible for his social media posts. So someone is knowing about these events in advance. And they may have an hour to know or they may have a day. But someone knows. And the question is 'are they trading on that information?' Are they profiting while people's retirement savings are on fire?"
Democrats do not have significant power in either chamber of Congress, so it's not clear what they may be able to do to investigate the incident.
