President Donald Trump’s tariff threats on Greenland could be the final straw for House Republicans who have sidestepped his repeated use of emergency powers.
For months, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has been able to insulate Trump from congressional opposition to his global tariffs, passing language that blocks any Democratic attempt to repeal them on the House floor. But that maneuver has an expiration date at the end of the month, and Republicans would need to extend it by Friday.
Given the precarious nature of Johnson’s majority, just one wayward vote could derail any plans for an extension.
“I’ll just say … I advocate to the Speaker not to put the tariff stuff in the rule,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told the Washington Examiner, referring to the procedural votes Johnson has used to pass the language. “This is especially true now that the President wants to put tariffs on our European Allies to force their hand on Greenland. I don’t think the rule will pass again.”
Bacon voted with the rest of his party on the tariff vote in September, but only after helping negotiate a compromise that shortened the length of the blockade. Four months later, he’s reluctant to do so again, saying the emergency powers Trump is using to impose them have been “greatly abused.”
Making matters worse for Johnson, House margins have shrunk since September, and a string of absences has made perfect attendance difficult on any single vote. Rep. Steve Womack (R-AK) is expected to be away from Washington due to the death of his wife, though other missing lawmakers, including Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), have said they will return this week.
At time of publication, House GOP leadership had not made a decision on whether to attempt an extension of the tariff language this week, but if Johnson moves ahead, he can lose just two Republicans if all Democrats are opposed.
The Supreme Court could hand Trump a rebuke apart from any congressional action, with a decision expected any day on whether the basis for his tariffs is lawful. Yet the administration has already signaled it has a fallback plan to keep Trump’s tariff regime in place, and the president has shown no interest in giving up on the duties as a point of leverage on the global stage.
The Senate, for its part, has cast several votes to rein in Trump’s tariff authority, though each has been symbolic given the lack of House action. Trump could also veto the resolutions if they reach his desk.
Johnson has been unable to block other votes challenging the Trump administration using privileged resolutions, a legislative tool that has allowed Democrats to end-run his control of the floor.
Later this week, the House will vote on a measure to rein in Trump’s war powers after the United States deposed dictator Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
Johnson is also dealing with Republicans more willing than ever to defy him, with the three Republicans who opposed his last tariff vote maneuver – Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), and Kevin Kiley (R-CA) – splitting with leadership on other pivotal votes.
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The question of tariffs has roiled the GOP for months, as Bacon and other Republicans reluctantly gave Trump the space to use the duties as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations.
But the president’s willingness to throw around tariffs over Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory controlled by Denmark, has raised alarm among foreign policy hawks, too. Trump has refused to rule out military intervention to take over the land, with the impasse becoming so severe that a delegation of House and Senate lawmakers traveled to Denmark, a NATO ally, over the weekend in an attempt to soothe relations.