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House Republicans tiptoe toward tariff criticism

President Donald Trump’s determination to barrel ahead with tariffs is forcing a growing number of Republican lawmakers to make an uncomfortable choice: defend the president’s agenda or influential industries back home.

So far, they are trying to thread the needle by expressing concerns to administration officials couched in praise for the president — but not yet supporting legislation to rein in his trade authority. The gentle, behind-the-scenes pushback, primarily in the form of group letters, is a sign of the squeeze Trump’s trade agenda is putting on some Republicans, who face pressure from powerful, export-reliant industries like aerospace and agriculture, but also fear crossing a president known for nursing grudges.

In recent weeks, dozens of House Republicans have signed onto letters to Trump’s top trade advisers encouraging them to take a restrained approach to future tariffs — in particular, the industry-specific tariffs the Commerce Department is weighing on sectors ranging from semiconductors to pharmaceuticals to drones. Trump has hinted that some of those duties will be rolled out soon, telling reporters on Tuesday that tariffs on pharmaceuticals could be coming “at the end of the month,” starting at a low rate but gradually rising to a “very high tariff.”

That effort is being driven in part by industry groups representing a broad range of critical sectors that depend on trade and exports, that have concluded that direct appeals to the administration carry less weight than channeling their lobbying through Congress.

The lawmakers’ letters are always laudatory. “We write to commend this Administration’s commitment to restore a robust American manufacturing sector,” read a June 17 letter from two dozen House Republicans — many representing swing districts — that was shared with POLITICO.

But the underlying request is clear: rein in the tariffs.

The June letter, which was led by Rep. Ron Estes, went on to urge U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to honor a longstanding zero-tariff agreement on civil aircraft between the U.S. and other countries — and, implicitly, drop the administration’s plan to raise tariffs on imports of aerospace products. Lawmakers also underscored the industry’s trade surplus and “its high-wage domestic manufacturing workforce” — a subtle counterpoint to Trump’s argument that tariffs are necessary to rebalance global trade and return manufacturing to the U.S.

Estes’ Wichita-based district is home to several aerospace companies, including the headquarters for Spirit Aerosystems, a commercial airline manufacturer. Kansas companies export about $2.3 billion in aerospace products annually, according to the Kansas Department of Commerce, which is 20 percent of the Midwestern state’s total exports.

“One of the unique things in the aerospace industry is that since 1979 there’s been a zero-zero tariff policy that’s out there,” Estes said in an interview. “And that kind of ties in with the president’s objective of ‘how do we have growth in America,’ because without having some of the constraints around tariffs, America has been very successful in terms of developing and supplying the world.”

Estes and a number of his GOP colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee also signed onto a recent letter urging Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to narrow the focus of any future U.S. duties on pharmaceuticals to Chinese-made products, reminding Lutnick that trade disruptions to drugs “jeopardize the health and lives of Americans that rely on treatment.”

“I feel strongly that we need a targeted approach,” Nicole Malliotakis, the New York Republican who led the letter, said in a recent interview. “We can’t ‘make it in America’ if we don’t have certain parts and components and materials, and so, the first piece of this is to make sure the things we actually need to make in America are available and don’t have the tariffs.”

Malliotakis’ Staten Island-based district is home to a network of independent pharmacies that have long complained about rising drug costs and shrinking profit margins — problems they say would be exacerbated by broad-based tariffs on imported medicines.

One of the lobbyists who pitched the letter to Malliotakis and her colleagues said it was the product of outreach from “local pharmacists, the mom-and-pop shops,” who helped nudge the right-leaning lawmakers into “understanding the outsized impact of hikes on pharmaceutical tariffs.” The lobbyist was granted anonymity to discuss the details of those private conversations.

It’s just one example of the quiet but intense effort by business groups to rein in the Trump administration’s most potentially damaging duties — particularly those Trump is considering applying on a national security basis. Under existing trade law known as Section 232, the Commerce Department must investigate whether foreign imports of a certain product represents a security threat before the president can take that action. Lutnick is currently overseeing nine investigations of key industries — everything from lumber to copper to semiconductors to drones.

A White House official defended the administration’s plans to target critical sectors with higher tariffs, arguing there are "very clear national security, national and economic security prerogatives at play."

"We all remember back in 2021, 2022 ... we had shortages of critical drugs and medical equipment during Covid," as well as "car shortages because of semiconductor shortages."

The administration is approaching the tariffs in "a much more thoughtful way than I think we're being ... given credit for," the official continued. "They're all also hypotheticals, because, again, we have to finish these 232 reports. We haven't unveiled any of these."

Industry groups, however, are pulling out all the stops to pressure the administration not to follow through on the most extreme tariff proposals, from filing comments on the investigations, to walking lawmakers through factories that may have to make cuts due to the tariffs, to attempting to secure as many meetings as possible with officials they know have Trump’s ear.

One pro-trade lobbyist, who pitched a March letter to GOP lawmakers calling for greater agricultural market access, said industry groups are “focusing their efforts on the members of Congress that they know that have phone call access to the Trump administration.”

An official in the U.S. Trade Representative’s office confirmed it has been fielding comments from members of Congress and the business community about tariffs’ potential impact.

“USTR has been engaged with Congress, stakeholders, and business leaders at an unprecedented pace and will continue to do so,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak about meetings that are not open to the public.

A spokesperson for the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

At the same time, business groups and their allies in Congress are being careful not to appear like they are criticizing Trump or opposing a key plank of his administration.

“There’s room in this administration for those differences of opinion about the best way to architect an equal America First trade strategy,” said one right-leaning corporate lobbyist involved with the effort, who recently met with administration officials. “And if certain approaches are fine-tuned or refined, there’s a way to truly protect key segments of manufacturing.”

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and 11 other Senate Republicans joined with 44 House colleagues to send a letter to Trump’s top trade officials thanking them for their work on trade deals, while pushing the administration to continue to expand U.S. agricultural markets.

“They’re rooting for the president,” Daines said of his constituents. “They just want to see [trade deals] done sooner versus later. And the administration is seeing that, I know they’ve got a full court press on this, going as fast as they can.”

Senate Republicans have been forced to vote on Democrat-led resolutions aimed at blocking Trump from pursuing some of his tariffs — and all but a few toed the party line. House Republicans, however, have maneuvered to avoid a similar vote. That has allowed members to maintain that they are firmly in favor of Trump’s agenda.

“It is categorically wrong to say we oppose Trump on trade,” said one of the staffers for a Republican lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

To put it another way, “It’s not our job to publicly shame Trump on his approach to trade,” said a staffer for a different Republican lawmaker. “It’s about Trump understanding the benefits of a more measured approach.”