Nightmare on Capitol Street

Ted Cruz
Senator Ted Cruz called Trump’s import taxes “the biggest tax increase we have seen in a long, long, long time.” Photo: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Leigh Ann Caldwell
April 6, 2025

It’s been a rough week for Republicans in Washington. Just when they were really feeling their oats—cheering Trump’s executive orders, getting dozens of Democrats to vote for the Laken Riley Act, celebrating Chuck Schumer’s capitulation on government funding, and envisioning beachfront property in Greenland—along came the president with his most distasteful loyalty test yet. Trump’s imposition of global tariffs not only cratered markets, erased trillions of dollars in wealth, freaked out consumers, and angered key allies. It has also made things a bit awkward for Republicans, who now have to explain to their constituents why more expensive products, combined with the plunging value of their retirement accounts, will actually—well, theoretically—be good in the long run.