Why Democrats Should Talk About Trump’s Tariffs as a ‘Threat to the Rule of Law’

The unpopularity of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies will be a problem for Republicans in this year’s midterm elections—and a test for Democrats as they pitch voters on what a post-Trump America might look like.

For Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D–Calif.), that means Democrats should talk to voters about tariffs not only as an economic issue but as something that highlights the balance of power in the federal government.

“It starts with the prices,” Panetta said Thursday while speaking at an event hosted by the Cato Institute. “However, I do believe it is not only a threat to our economy. This is a threat to the rule of law.”

Afterwards, Panetta told Reason that Democrats should commit to repealing some of the legal mechanisms that Trump has tried to use to implement tariffs without congressional approval.

“I think we’ve learned our lesson the hard way, unfortunately, that when you give up your power—like Democrats and Republicans have over the past few decades—this is what can happen when you have someone in the White House who has had a 40-year fixation on tariffs,” Panetta (D–Calif.) said. “When we do take control, that’s going to be our opportunity—it’s going to be Congress’s opportunity.”

Panetta is the lead sponsor of a bill that would abolish presidential tariff authority under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, the latest mechanism by which Trump is trying to impose tariffs without congressional authorization. He introduced that bill nearly a year ago, well before Trump reached for Section 122 in response to the Supreme Court striking down his attempt to impose sweeping tariffs via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Panetta also supports a bill introduced by his colleague, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D–Wash.), to prevent presidents from using IEEPA to impose tariffs. Neither of those bills has made much headway in the Republican-controlled House.

Of course, Congress had ample opportunity to revise or abolish laws granting tariff authority to the president before Trump returned to the White House. Despite occasional bipartisan discussion of the issue, no serious reform efforts materialized, and the Biden administration largely kept in place the tariff that Trump had imposed during his first term.

The tariffs Trump has pushed in his second term have been more aggressive and costly—and have depended on different legal mechanisms. That might give lawmakers like Panetta and DelBene more leverage to push back against presidential tariff authorities next year, if Democrats take control of Congress.

Panetta is correct to suggest that Democrats in Congress should “reassert their constitutional authority over trade, regardless of who is president, both on an institutional basis and in recognition of the fact that there is no telling who will be president in the future or which party they belong to,” Bryan Riley, director of the Free Trade Initiative at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, told Reason via email.

On the other hand, history suggests that tough talk about reining in the executive branch tends to whither once campaign season ends.

Panetta says Democrats have learned “the hard way” that Congress must take back those powers. Time will tell if that’s true.