Republicans in Congress are rushing to praise President Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on allies and adversaries alike, even those from agricultural states whose constituents stand to lose the most from a trade war.
The outpouring of praise, peppered only with a few instances of carefully worded skepticism, is another indication that there is unlikely to be any legislative resistance to Mr. Trump’s unilateral move.
On Saturday evening, barely five minutes after Mr. Trump posted about the tariffs he had just signed an executive order for, Representative Glenn Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican who leads the House Agriculture Committee, praised the decision as an “effective tool” for “ensuring fair trade for American producers.”
“Look no further than Colombia’s about-face on accepting repatriated criminal migrants at the mere threat of tariffs,” said Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania.
The agriculture panel’s social media feed was replete with Republican praise of Mr. Trump’s tariff plan, an extraordinary outpouring given that the G.O.P. has long been defined by its zeal for free trade.
“Thank you, President Trump! Our country finally has an advocate for American farmers, families, and businesses in the White House!” Representative Randy Feenstra, an Iowa Republican who prides himself on meeting with farmers and families in each of the 36 counties he represents in the state’s northwest corner, wrote in a post on X on Monday.
The message was starkly at odds with the one coming from major groups representing farmers throughout the country, who issued statements warning of dire impacts on the nation’s food producers.
Republican senators were more muted — and some downright silent — in their responses.
Senator Chuck Grassley, another Iowa Republican, on Monday morning pleaded with Mr. Trump on social media to exclude Canadian potash — a key ingredient in fertilizer — from the tariffs. A few hours later, Mr. Grassley cheered what he called the “good news” that Mr. Trump had negotiated a one-month pause on tariffs with Mexico and said he hoped the agreement foreshadowed a resolution with other trading partners.
“Hopefully, negotiating will preempt more talk of tariffs,” Mr. Grassley wrote.
The last time Mr. Trump was in office, he imposed tariffs in 2018 and 2019 on $300 billion of Chinese imports to push China to negotiate a trade deal with the United States. His action triggered a trade war between Washington and Beijing, with China slapping retaliatory tariffs on American products. China also shifted more of its soybean purchases to Brazil and Argentina, a significant blow to U.S. soybean farmers who had long relied on the Chinese market.
That resulted in billions of dollars of lost revenue for American farmers. To help offset the losses, Mr. Trump handed out $23 billion in subsidies from a fund that the Department of Agriculture created to stabilize the farm sector. But that attempt to mitigate the damage was not viewed as a total success. Large farm operations and farmers in the South benefited the most, fueling concerns about fairness and leaving some farmers feeling cheated.
Some Republicans have criticized the tariffs. Senator Rand Paul said bluntly: “Tariffs are simply taxes. Conservatives once united against new taxes. Taxing trade will mean less trade and higher prices.”
And Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska — who represents a leftward-shifting Omaha-based district, making him one of the House’s most vulnerable members — said over the weekend that he was confused about Mr. Trump’s decision to target Canada, arguing that he should focus instead on China and Russia.
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