Senator Ron Wyden tries to retain Congress' power over trade and taxes.

Trump claimed the power to set tariffs. He had a pretext: We have an "emergency."

Senator Ron Wyden (D. OR) and Senator Rand Paul (R. KY) are trying to put a resolution on the Senate floor that would end the pretext.

Wyden, in Medford for meetings with constituents, May, 2025

This is Senator Wyden's second try at stopping Trump's power grab. Six months ago he introduced a motion that would have terminated the national emergency cited by President Trump to justify taking over the tariff authority. It failed 49-49. Such a motion can be made only every six months. He is trying again.

The Resolution is short and simple. It says Trump's so-called emergency is terminated:

The motion needs Republican votes to win a majority. Rand Paul has both an ideological and practical reason to want to reclaim Congress' tariff authority. He is a libertarian-style Republican, not a big government populist Republican of the re-made GOP. This is the schism in the GOP that I described in yesterday's post about The Wall Street Journal's report on Portland. The small-government, anti-regulation WSJ sided with Portland, not the Department of Homeland Security, when it described a generally peaceful city being provoked by ICE.

Kentucky is especially vulnerable to the reciprocal tariffs that other countries imposed on the U.S. in response to Trump's tariffs. Alcohol is prominently labeled by place of origin. Presumably, Kentucky bourbon is different from, and better than, bourbon produced in a factory in New Jersey or Rotterdam, so it is sold as being from Kentucky.  

Wyden made two arguments: the practical one that Trump's tariffs were hurting Americans and the Constitutional one that tariffs and taxes are Congress's prerogative to set. He said:

Trump is driving our economy into a recession, killing farming and ranching jobs and bankrupting small businesses with his reckless global tariffs. Every Senator who values Americans’ jobs and economic prosperity should join our bipartisan legislation to eliminate these poisonous tariffs. No matter who is president, Senators should stand up for Congress’s Constitutional role as final word on trade.

Wyden is full-throated in his criticism of the tariffs. So are the other Democrats who signed up as sponsors. Paul was careful here. He has a delicate political problem, since Trump remains popular in Kentucky, and Trump is watching Paul for signs of apostasy. He needs to acknowledge that Trump is right about something before reversing direction and criticizing Trump's  power grab. Here is how he does it:

I am alarmed by the Brazilian government’s persecution of a former president and authoritarian repression of freedom of speech, but that has no bearing on the constitutional limits of our own executive. The President of the United States does not have the authority under IEEPA to unilaterally impose tariffs. Trade policy belongs to Congress, not the White House.

Paul is taking Trump's side on the Bolsonaro issue, calling it a "persecution" before reversing course with the "but." Paul uses a subordinate clause to show Trump and his Kentucky constituents that he hasn't become a RINO. (See, Mr. President, I am really on the team! Don't be mad at me! If you support a coup d' état in Brazil, then so do I!) Like Trump on January 6, 2021, defeated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro incited a mob to take over his country's capitol to prevent installation of the election winner. Tariffs on Brazil are a loyalty test for Republicans, proving that you support Trump, even when he supports the leader of a coup d'état against a democratic election. Rand passed the test.

The amicus brief that my attorney, Thad Guyer, prepared for me in the case in front of the Federal District of the U.S. Court of Appeals focused on the constitutional issue. Whether the tariffs are the right or wrong amount is nearly irrelevant to me and our brief. The issue is presidential over-reach. Congress was being steamrolled. Our form of government is at stake. Maybe the Supreme Court, recognizing the dangerous precedent it sets for itself the next time a Democrat becomes president, will limit this president's ability to declare an emergency on a pretext.

But the best way for Congress to reclaim its power is to do it itself because they insist on staying relevant. They got elected to do a job and setting taxes and spending are central duties of that job. They aren't a rubber stamp marked, "Yes, Mr. Trump."  The problem for Republican officeholders is that anything other than "Yes, Mr. Trump" risks his wrath.

Wyden's resolution is an attempt to reclaim Congress' relevance. The question is whether four or more Republicans will dare do so.

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