‘Everyone is terrified’: Business and government officials are afraid to cross Trump on tariffs
While lobbyists, business leaders, and lawmakers are worried about Donald Trump’s tariffs, there’s a culture of fear in Washington preventing many from speaking out.
Capitol Hill Republicans, corporate America and White House allies are terrified about what’s next in President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war. But they fear Trump’s wrath even more.
Republican lawmakers are signaling they’re willing to tolerate the pain for now, despite the economic fallout back home. Lobbyists, who are quietly prodding the same lawmakers to defend their interests, don’t want to have a target on their back — or their clients’. Even some Trump world confidantes, alarmed about the tariffs’ impact, are hoping someone else intervenes.
“There is zero incentive for any company or brand to be remotely critical of this administration,” said a public affairs operative, who, like others interviewed for this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely. “It destroys your ability to work with the White House and advance your policies, period.”
An official in the energy industry echoed that sense of fear. “Hearing angst and frustration from all quarters,” the official said via text message, “but no one wants to be first out of the box saying anything negative about Trump’s decision-making.”
The paralysis reflects the broader mood of Trump’s second administration, in which he’s targeted and threatened to destroy institutions that cross him, including law firms, universities, and more. With his tight grip on Washington, Trump has faced no meaningful resistance to policies that are upending the global economy, tearing up America’s relationships with its closest allies and making deep, unilateral cuts to the federal government. Leaders have quickly learned that however harmful they think a Trump policy might be, publicly contradicting the president could be worse. Now with the Trump administration doubling down on tariffs and trying to sell the country on short-term pain for long-term gain, it’s unclear what the breaking point will be for officials and lobbyists representing the most-impacted constituencies.
“There is absolutely a sense that the administration is keeping a list, and no one on K Street wants to be on it,” said one executive at a trade group downtown.
Advocates for affected industries are scrambling to determine how durable the new tariffs will be, wary of coming out forcefully if the administration decides to quickly scale them back. They point to Trump’s swift reversal last month on tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico, which he largely paused amid an uproar from business leaders and even some Republicans. (In a Truth Social postFriday, Trump wrote, “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE.”)
“I think a lot of business leaders are very frustrated that the process of getting here was opaque, and that the decision points are so starkly black and white, and … that they’re not dealing with situations with more nuance,” one multi-client Republican lobbyist said, before adding: “I’m trying to say something profound without getting a call from the White House that, ‘You’re next.’”
“What’s the Japanese proverb? The nail sticking up gets hammered down,” the lobbyist added. “On K Street, there’s no value in being the nail sticking up right now.”
Another Republican lobbyist said they’ve been advising clients to “soften their tone if they want to work with this White House,” and that they can spar over policy differences behind the scenes as long as they don’t spill out into the public.
Even those close to Trump expected louder pushback after he implemented a baseline tariff of 10 percent on all imported goods and slapped even higher “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of other countries that Trump believes are stiffing the U.S. in the global marketplace.
A White House ally close to the president’s inner circle noted that the tariffs the administration came up with were not true reciprocal tariffs — and that there is a question about whether they are even legal. The Trump ally said he and others in the administration expected business groups would challenge them in court.
“They’re gonna be sued off their asses for this as soon as it happens,” the person said, “by trade associations, companies, industry groups.” No major trade group has filed litigation as of Friday midday.
When asked for comment, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the Trump administration is working “closely” with Congress. “The American people resoundingly voted for America First policies in November, and President Trump is committed to delivering on this mandate as the leader of the Republican Party,” Desai said.
A person close to the administration argued that companies aren’t being fearful about speaking out; rather, they’re trying to be strategic about how to engage with the president.
“People are smarter this time in dealing with the Trump administration,” the person said. “They know not to beat their chest and try to score points in The New York Times, but have conversations behind the scenes and try to make deals. I think it’s about making deals and not antagonizing the administration.”
Even on Capitol Hill, which lobbyists were hoping would be a key avenue for influencing the president without provoking his ire, fear is spreading among GOP lawmakers as the market hemorrhages trillions of dollars. But so far, most Republicans are unwilling to call on Trump to back down.
Industry “absolutely will not get back up from Congress” right now, the trade group executive conceded, adding that Republicans are “holding hands jumping off the cliff and hoping that it’s a very short drop.”
There have been some cracks in the conference. Earlier this week, four Republican senators voted to help Democrats pass a resolution that would nullify the emergency powers Trump invoked last month to levy 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports. And Sen. Chuck Grassley — a senior Republican whose home state of Iowa stands to be hit hard in a trade war — introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday that would claw back congressional control of tariff policy. But those measures will likely never make it to the president’s desk.
“Everyone is terrified,” a senior GOP aide said. “But I don’t think anyone wants to cross the president right now.”
A growing sense of defeatism set in Thursday and continued into Friday as Republican senators faced a slew of questions from reporters in real time as the market melted down. A wave of distressed phone calls from industry leaders and constituents in their states only added to their dread.
“He campaigned on this,” one GOP senator whispered as panic stirred in the Senate hallways. “This is just the beginning.”
