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Even some of Trump's allies and supporters are starting to get nervous. Bill Ackman declared, "We are heading for a self-inflicted economic nuclear winter," while Elon Musk called for a zero-tariff free trade zone with Europe. Musk also attacked Trump's economic advisor Peter Navarro, who is perhaps the most influential supporter of the tariff policy.

Now, it is important to remember that Congress can step in and stop this madness at any time. The Constitution grants Congress the power to set tariffs, and Trump's ability to unilaterally impose these tariffs is only because Congress has granted the president this power through a series of laws. At any time, Congress can pass a new law to make these tariffs disappear.

In fact, there are currently at least two such bills being proposed—one by Chuck Grassley and Maria Cantwell in the Senate, and another by Don Bacon in the House. This is good! I hope they pass, even if Trump will veto them. If things get bad enough and Trump's approval ratings drop significantly, Democrats and Republicans can join forces to form a two-thirds majority to override the veto and end this tariff nightmare.

But you will immediately notice that among the three legislators leading the charge against tariffs, two—Bacon and Grassley—are Republicans. Democrats, overall, have not been at the forefront of the fight.

This does not mean that Democrats are completely silent. Many have issued statements against tariffs, such as this one by Nancy Pelosi:

The Mad "King": The Tariff Nightmare Sweeping the Globe

But so far, there has been no strong rhetoric like the progressives' attack on Elon Musk's DOGE. Bernie Sanders responded to DOGE with a "Stop the Oligarchs" tour that drew large crowds. But his response to tariffs has been cautious and ambiguous:

As someone who has helped lead the fight against disastrous, unrestricted free trade agreements with certain countries in Asia and South America, and other low-wage countries, I understand that we need trade policies that favor American workers, not just the interests of corporate CEOs. This includes targeted tariffs, which can be a powerful tool to prevent companies from outsourcing American jobs and factories overseas.

But the bottom line is: We need a rational, well-thought-out, and fair trade policy. Trump's blanket tariffs are not the right approach. We do not need a blanket and arbitrary sales tax on imported goods, which will raise the prices of goods that the American people desperately need. We should do everything we can to lower prices, not make them exorbitantly high.

Some Democrats are even teetering on the edge of defending Trump's tariffs. Congressman Chris Deluzio from Pennsylvania issued a statement criticizing the implementation of Trump's policies but seemed to support the overall direction and called for price controls to deal with inflation caused by tariffs:

I support the use of tariffs as a tool against bad actors and trade cheaters. I support combining tariffs with strong industrial policies and worker-supportive policies, strategically used to protect American jobs and consumers. I support actively renegotiating trade agreements like the USMCA to get the best deal for hardworking Americans in Western Pennsylvania... I do not support the decades-long Washington consensus on free trade, which has decimated American industry and jobs and given us often failing distant supply chains. This has been a bad deal for people in the "Rust Belt" and other areas. I also do not support allowing foreign trade cheaters to exploit their workers to undermine American jobs... The president has the power to stop companies from price-gouging under the cover of tariffs—why isn't he using this power?

The House Democrats released a video of Deluzio making a similar statement, adding some text to imply limited support for Trump's overall direction:

The Mad "King": The Tariff Nightmare Sweeping the Globe

Frankly, this is madness. No president has ever deliberately caused such destruction to the stock market and is about to do the same to the U.S. economy. Among policy mistakes of the past century, only the Iraq War can be compared, and that disaster unfolded gradually over years. Democrats now have a perfect opportunity to fiercely attack Trump from every rooftop, riding a wave of unprecedented anger to achieve a comprehensive Congressional victory in the 2026 midterm elections. Yet, they issue bland statements, get bogged down in minutiae, and let Republicans take the lead in defending American prosperity against their mad "King."

What is going on? If this is a strategic, well-thought-out move by Democrats—letting the Republican coalition tear itself apart and then exploiting their division—I would expect Democrats to just issue more statements like Pelosi's, rather than Deluzio's tangled, half-defending-tariffs remarks. Instead, it seems clear that Trump is actually implementing the great anti-neoliberal counterattack that progressives have dreamed of for decades, and Democrats don't know how to deal with the fact that it is rapidly turning into a complete disaster.

Trump's embrace of tariffs is actually a political reversal. For decades, it has been Democrats and the labor left who have worried that trade agreements are weakening organized labor in the U.S., sending American jobs to low-wage countries, and harming the environment. In recent years, it has been progressives who have identified neoliberalism—as one of its main pillars, free trade—as a core problem in the U.S.

"Anti-neoliberalism" is the core idea that modern progressive movements have coalesced around. Socialist critics throw the word "neoliberalism" at anything they dislike. Progressive think tanks like the Roosevelt Institute and the Hewlett Foundation fund thinkers and activists dedicated to determining what comes after neoliberalism (I myself have participated in some of these activities). The Warren movement—a knowledge elite project with considerable influence in the Biden administration—began to put this concept into practice, adopting key policy tools such as anti-monopoly, price controls, and increased support for unions. More national security-focused liberals, like Jake Sullivan and Jennifer Harris, focus more on industrial policy (which I strongly support). The Sanders movement—a populist movement that influences policy but has never held power—calls for more radical policies, including punitive high taxes and industrial nationalization.

You will notice that tariffs and trade deficits do not feature prominently on these lists. Anti-neoliberalism is indeed skeptical of free trade, and Biden has strategically and selectively imposed tariffs on certain Chinese products. But tariffs have never been a very important part of the anti-neoliberal ideology, and few progressives cite trade deficits as evidence that the U.S. is being taken advantage of by other countries. Even the most enthusiastic Bernie supporters might hesitate at the level of trade destruction Trump is now trying to implement (Bernie himself would surely do so).

But if the progressive anti-neoliberal movement was slowly puttering along in the slow lane, Trump has now taken his sports car and overtaken it. Trump has now seized the banner of anti-neoliberalism and pushed it much further, in directions that the movement's former leaders never dreamed of.

Now, progressive leaders are worried that if they fight Trump by raising the banner of free trade and succeed, their entire anti-neoliberal project will be thrown out along with the tariffs. I think this is a legitimate concern. Trump has already made most Americans more favorable towards free trade, and as the economic damage from tariffs spreads, the backlash could intensify:

The Mad "King": The Tariff Nightmare Sweeping the Globe