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00:00You're listening to TIME's DC Brief Newsletter from April 3rd, 2025.
00:05This audio was produced by 11 Labs for TIME using an AI voice.
00:11Our top story is called Congress is freaking out about Trump's trade war, but not enough
00:16to stop him.
00:17By TIME Senior Correspondent Philip Elliott.
00:21A fast-spreading panic hit Capitol Hill on Thursday, as President Donald Trump's trade
00:26war prompted markets to suffer their worst day since the onset of the pandemic in 2020,
00:32and analysts were predicting the worst was yet to come.
00:36While most Hill Republicans tried to avoid criticizing their party's leader, frustrations
00:40were being laid bare as their talking points didn't match those coming out of the White
00:44House.
00:45Lawmakers were insisting Trump's new tariffs are a starting point for a negotiation, while
00:50the White House said they're actually the end of the discussion.
00:54Frantic calls to Cabinet agencies about home district impacts were yielding platitudes
00:59and not promises.
01:01Even give-Trump-a-chance Republicans began losing patience as their office phone lines
01:06were on fire.
01:07Trump's stated goal is to force businesses to make their wares on U.S. soil, in theory
01:12sparking a renaissance in domestic manufacturing.
01:16Economists are highly skeptical, but even Trump's apologists worry that the short-term
01:20ramp-up is going to be rough.
01:22Midterm elections seldom reward the party holding the White House even in the best of
01:26times, and Republicans are quickly realizing that Trump's kitchen-table chaos may end
01:31up tanking their hopes for retaining control of Congress next year.
01:36None of this was thought through, says one Republican lobbyist, who is trying to tell
01:40her association's members not to panic.
01:44The math doesn't work.
01:46The endgame doesn't work.
01:47The politics doesn't work.
01:49This is just a mess, and it is going to cost Republicans seats.
01:54Not too long ago, Congress would have had some say in the tariffs levied on other countries.
01:59But Trump is calling the trade imbalance between domestic markets and its international partners
02:03as a national emergency to avail himself of powers that allow him, without any real check,
02:09to impose these tariffs.
02:11The result is set to be a minimum 10% tax on most goods coming into the country and
02:16climbing to a net 79% charge on some stuff coming in from China.
02:22Put plainly, this was not the trade rebalancing Hill Republicans would have drafted had they
02:26been consulted.
02:28Just don't expect things to move in any meaningful way against Trump's orders anytime soon,
02:32no matter how steamed they are.
02:34A handful of Republicans were motioning to curb Trump's capricious trade war, but not
02:39in a way that anyone in Washington expects will go anywhere.
02:43As Times' Nick Popley reports from the Hill, Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican
02:49whose home state farmers will pay dearly if the export markets close, is backing a measure
02:54that requires Congress to approve tariffs within 60 days of a White House announcement.
02:59But there is almost zero chance the bill will get sufficient backing, let alone a vote,
03:04in the GOP-led House.
03:07Grassley's move peeved the White House, but is just that, an annoyance.
03:12It's the same fate that awaits a small-scale, symbolic version to undo the penalties against
03:17Canada that immediately cleared the Senate on Wednesday.
03:20For now, the Senate map in 2026 still favors Republicans, with retirements of Democrats
03:26in toss-up states like New Hampshire, Michigan, and Minnesota giving GOP strategists optimism
03:32about adding to their majorities.
03:34But the argument for electing Republicans becomes tougher once clothing and grocery
03:38bills spike, and housing starts to plummet because Canadian lumber is too expensive to
03:43frame up a new development.
03:46This tit-for-tat trade retribution is an impulse that has long been part of Trump's worldview.
03:51He thinks the United States is getting ripped off, plain and simple.
03:55He sees a deck stacked against American manufacturers, and he has the power to remedy this for what
04:00he calls the little guy.
04:03It's all guaranteed to be bad politics for a president who returned to office on promises
04:07of curbing inflation, driving down costs, and fixing Washington, and his fellow party
04:13members who are fine going along.
04:16Republicans at the Capitol understand this is going to hurt not just Americans, but their
04:20own political futures.
04:22It's why, in a low-key fever, they're freaking out.
04:26But here's the rub.
04:27While they know this is bad for just about everyone, don't expect them to exercise their
04:32congressional authority to get Trump to back off.
04:35Their prospects may be bad right now, but they view crossing a president who leads a
04:38vindictive movement as even worse.
04:41This is not a moment where anyone in Washington is expecting political bravery.
04:46Far from it.
04:48The question many Republicans in the Capitol are asking themselves, which path will yield
04:52the least pain for selfish spoils?
04:55It's a pretty weak way to run a superpower.
05:01Continuing our coverage, Time reporter Rebecca Schneid wrote an article called,
05:07Why Economists Are Horrified by Trump's Tariff Math.
05:11When President Donald Trump initially announced his new tariffs in February, he proposed them
05:16as a fair and reciprocal plan on trade.
05:20And so it was assumed that these reciprocal tariffs, as they are known, would be equal
05:25in value to the taxes that foreign countries have set against U.S. goods.
05:30In fact, the tariffs unveiled on Trump's April 2nd quote, Liberation Day, were slightly
05:35more complicated, and for some economists, more worrying.
05:40Trump first slapped a 10 percent blanket tariff on all imports into the U.S., including from
05:44uninhabited islands, such as the Heard and McDonald Islands, and on places with which
05:49the U.S. runs a surplus, such as the U.K.
05:52While speaking from the Rose Garden at the White House, Trump said,
05:56To all of the foreign presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, ambassadors, and everyone else
06:02who will soon be calling to ask for exemptions from these tariffs, I say, terminate your
06:07own tariffs, drop your barriers, don't manipulate your currencies.
06:11On top of this baseline 10 percent charge, Trump held up a cardboard chart and announced
06:17additional tariffs for some countries, calculated by tariffs charged to the USA.
06:23The Trump administration ended up using a simple calculation, each country's U.S.
06:28trade deficit divided by its exports to the U.S.
06:31The final reciprocal tariff was then divided by two, with a minimum of 10 percent.
06:37Before the Trump administration confirmed this method, prominent economist James Surowiecki
06:43received attention for reverse engineering the explanation of the tariff pricing on X.
06:48Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided
06:54it by the country's exports to us, the former financial columnist for The New Yorker posted
06:59on X.
07:00What extraordinary nonsense this is.
07:03The Office of the United States Trade Representative confirmed Trump's tariff math in an explainer,
07:09stating,
07:10Reciprocal tariffs are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade
07:15deficits between the U.S. and each of our trading partners.
07:19To conceptualize reciprocal tariffs, the tariff rates that would drive bilateral trade deficits
07:24to zero were computed.
07:28Though the explanation uses Greek letters and formulas, Politico notes that it is essentially
07:33the same formula that Surowiecki posted.
07:36Using this formula, the Trump administration calculated extremely high rates for certain
07:40countries, including a new 34 percent tariff imposed on China, 46 percent for Vietnam,
07:47and 20 percent for the European Union.
07:50Felix Tintelnot, associate professor of economics at Duke University, sees major problems with
07:56this method of calculation, notably that the trade deficit is normal and can change.
08:02Let's say the trade deficit in Vietnam shrinks over the next year.
08:06Well, then the tariff rate also should change.
08:09But now market participants need to forecast how much the trade deficit with individual
08:14countries will change, Tintelnot says.
08:18And that's not straightforward, because we are changing so many tariffs at the same time,
08:22and ultimately, the aggregate trade deficit of the U.S. is largely determined by other
08:27macro decisions, like aggregate savings and aggregate investment, that have nothing to
08:32do with tariff rates.
08:34He also points out how for certain countries, it does not matter whether they actually have
08:38tariffs on the U.S.
08:40Israel eliminated tariffs on U.S. goods on April 1st, in preparation for Trump's tariffs,
08:46but were still hit hard by a 17 percent tariff in the April 2nd announcement.
08:52Up next, Time reporter Chantelle Lee has an exclusive story called More than 150 House
08:58Democrats Urge HHS to Restore Title X Funds.
09:02More than 150 House Democrats signed a letter sent to U.S. Department of Health and Human
09:07Services, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on April 3rd, calling for the Department
09:13to undo the freeze on millions of dollars allocated for family planning services.
09:18The letter, shared exclusively with Time, comes after HHS confirmed this week that it
09:23is withholding Title X funds from 16 organizations, quote, pending an evaluation of possible violations
09:31of federal civil rights laws and President Donald Trump's executive order declaring
09:36that undocumented immigrants are barred, quote, from obtaining most taxpayer-funded benefits.
09:43Title X is the nation's only federally funded program dedicated solely to family planning,
09:48and each year allocates millions of dollars for clinics that provide birth control, cancer
09:53screenings, STI testing, and other health care services for people from low-income households.
10:00HHS did not respond to Time's questions earlier this week about the details of the
10:05possible violations, how much money was being withheld from the affected organizations,
10:10and which organizations were being hit by the funding freeze.
10:14It also did not respond to a further request for comment today, April 3rd.
10:20More than $200 million is allocated for Title X annually.
10:24On March 25th, The Wall Street Journal reported that HHS was considering freezing $27.5 million
10:30of those Title X funds.
10:32One of the largest Title X providers, Planned Parenthood, said on March 31st that nine of
10:38its affiliates were informed by the federal government that their Title X funding was
10:42being withheld as of April 1st.
10:45The letter sent to Kennedy on April 3rd was an effort led by seven House Democrats, Representative
10:51Judy Chu from California, Representative Diana DeGette from Colorado, Representative Ayanna
10:58Pressley from Massachusetts, Representative Teresa Leger-Fernandez from New Mexico, Representative
11:04Lizzie Fletcher from Texas, Representative Sharice Davids from Kansas, and Representative
11:10Nakima Williams from Georgia.
11:12The 162 House Democrats who signed it said in the letter that Title X has been, quote,
11:17a cornerstone of safety net care for decades.
11:21Championed by then-Congressman George H.W. Bush and signed into law by President Nixon,
11:28Title X allows a diverse network of providers to deliver high-quality care to low-income,
11:33uninsured or underinsured individuals confidentially, the letter said.
11:39These centers offer care to populations that often face severe structural and systemic
11:43barriers to accessing quality health care, including individuals with no or insufficient
11:49insurance and rural and underserved communities.
11:52Freezing funds for this essential program will harm communities that otherwise may not
11:56have access to care.
11:59According to the letter, Title X-funded clinics provided services to 2.8 million people in
12:052023.
12:06In 2016, 60 percent of the women who received birth control from a clinic participating
12:12in the Title X program revealed that that was their only source of health care the year
12:17before, according to the letter.
12:19The letter also cited a report from the Guttmacher Institute, which researches and supports sexual
12:24and reproductive health and rights, that found that every dollar spent on Title X services
12:30saves $7 in Medicaid-related expenses.
12:35Reproductive rights experts have called the freeze absolutely devastating, saying that
12:39Title X allows many people to access critical health care services they may not otherwise
12:44be able to afford.
12:47Experts at the Guttmacher Institute estimated that between 600,000 and 1.25 million people
12:53could be affected by the freeze annually.
12:57Finally, Time politics reporter Nick Popley writes,
13:02He's going to tank our economy.
13:04Trump's tariffs draw strong reactions in Congress.
13:08Less than a day after President Donald Trump imposed a wave of new tariffs on dozens of
13:12countries, members of Congress from both parties were grappling with what to make of a trade
13:17strategy they fear could tank the U.S. economy, drive up consumer prices, and destabilize
13:22global markets.
13:25Democrats seized on the market reaction to underscore what they see as reckless economic
13:29policymaking.
13:31This is uncoordinated, capricious, and simply destructive, Senator Adam Schiff, a California
13:37Democrat, told Time Thursday morning.
13:39He's going to tank our economy, and he could tank much of the economy around the world.
13:45Those fears were fueling a stronger GOP pushback against Trump than seen in his second term
13:50thus far, though those speaking out still represented a minority in their party.
13:55Trump's tariffs quickly triggered a significant sell-off in the stock market, with major indexes
14:00on track for their worst day since at least 2022.
14:04Economists warn that the volatility may only be the beginning, with some predicting prolonged
14:09economic uncertainty if the tariffs remain in place and countries retaliate with additional
14:14taxes on American goods.
14:17Four Republicans delivered a largely symbolic rebuke to Trump's trade policy just hours
14:22after he announced them, voting Wednesday evening to undo his earlier tariffs on imports
14:27from Canada.
14:29Republican Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of
14:35Maine, and Rand Paul of Kentucky voted with all Democrats to invalidate a national emergency
14:42that Trump declared in February that allowed him to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian goods.
14:48Murkowski told Time on Thursday that she generally supports tariffs as an economic principle,
14:54but doesn't support the kind of across-the-board tariffs Trump is imposing.
14:59The measure is not expected to move in the House, where House Speaker Mike Johnson defended
15:03the tariffs as a necessary measure to restore, quote, fair and reciprocal trade, and level
15:09the playing field for American workers.
15:13Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida was similarly bullish on Trump's latest policy
15:18and dismissed the stock market reaction.
15:20I don't invest in the market directly.
15:22I'm focusing on what I like about tariffs.
15:25They're focused on American jobs, he tells Time, adding, I'm glad we finally have a
15:30person that gives a damn about American jobs.
15:33However, others in the GOP were less certain.
15:37Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson described Trump's strategy as a high-risk bet, while North Carolina
15:43Senator Tom Tillis admitted he was waiting to see how the market and trading partners
15:47responded before forming a definitive stance.
15:51The most significant GOP opposition to the trade policy on Thursday came from Senator
15:55Chuck Grassley, a senior Republican lawmaker from Iowa, who introduced a bill with Democratic
16:01Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington to curtail the president's authority to impose tariffs
16:07without congressional approval.
16:08The Trade Review Act of 2025, modeled after the War Powers Act, would require Congress
16:13to review and approve tariffs within 60 days or allow them to expire.
16:18Grassley emphasized the need to, quote, reassert Congress's constitutional role in setting
16:23trade policy and prevent executive overreach.
16:28Hours later, Tillis told reporters he would support the bill.
16:33Thank you for listening to Time's DC Brief.
16:36For more news and politics, visit time.com.