Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on the political response to Trump’s tariff threats

Amna Nawaz:

From the potential impact of trade tariffs, to the confirmation votes for President Trump's Cabinet, let's take a look at the political stakes now with Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter, who's in New Orleans tonight, and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Welcome to you both. Great to see you.

And, Tam, let's start with you, because we saw over the weekend confusion at USAID, as Elon Musk essentially took over the agency, threatened to shut it down, confusion and concerns about the number of firings at the FBI and DOJ.

Markets today unsteady after confusion about whether or not tariffs were going into place. Is all of this what Trump supporters voted for? Is this what they wanted to see?

Tamara Keith, National Public Radio:

I think it depends on which Trump supporters you're talking about, because some people voted for Donald Trump because they were concerned about the price of eggs and the price of everything else, and mad at President Biden for allowing that to happen.

There are other people who voted for President Trump because they were frustrated with President Biden refusing to step aside and then having Vice President Harris come in this way that just made it seem kind of rigged. There were people who were upset about what was happening in Gaza.

And then there are people who really wanted to just blow up the boxes, wanted to shake things up, felt like government wasn't working for them. And they are looking at this and saying, look at that. They are shaking things up. This is a hostile takeover of the United States government.

And that's what some share of Trump's voters signed up for. What I will say is that, when a president takes office, they are never more popular and never more powerful than they are in the first couple of weeks. And then, as they continue to do more things, people who voted for them get upset about it.

And so their popularity almost inevitably declines.

Amna Nawaz:

Amy, as we have spoken about a number of times over the last couple of years, the economy was a driving issue in the last election why people backed President Trump.

When you talk about potential for these tariffs to go into place and what people will feel, here's what President Trump had to say when he posted online. He said: "Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe."

He went on to say: "Will all be worth the price that must be paid."

We know, Amy, the prices for fruits and vegetables and alcohol and lumber and electronics could likely all go up if the tariffs go into effect. How much will President Trump's supporters be willing to stomach on that front?

Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report:

Yes, I think Tam made a very good point about the frustration with the status quo.

And I think a big reason that Trump not only was successful in the election, but why he actually starts off in decent shape in terms of his overall approval rating is that people are ready to see the status quo disrupted. And they see the Democratic Party as basically one — as one Democratic pollster told me, they see the Democratic Party as avatars for the status quo.

At the same time, they don't want to see their own lives necessarily disrupted. And what has been really interesting to watch, Donald Trump has come in and very quickly put a lot of things in place that are disruptive, whether it is on the DEI front or immigration, talking about ending birthright citizenship, those sorts of things.

On the issues that really could impact the day-to-day lives of Americans, one was shutting down government funding, putting a pause or a freeze on government funding, which was quickly rolled back. Or this issue of tariffs, which was basically a 24-hour event, the impact of it will not be felt, at least at this point, by regular Americans.

And so you have to wonder, at some point, either, one, these tariffs go actually into place and people do feel it, or that this now becomes something that we don't hear from for a while or it gets solved, and, instead, that the president spends more of his time on the issues that will impact some people, but don't have the broad impact on the economy.

Amna Nawaz:

Meanwhile, we know selections to join his Cabinet continue to move through their confirmation processes.

Tam, we saw and we have seen among the more tenuous nominees is Tulsi Gabbard to occupy that top intelligence post as DNI. We saw Republicans express concerns about her in the confirmation hearings. Just today, Senator Susan Collins said she will vote to confirm Tulsi Gabbard. And we know that the Senate Intelligence Committee vote is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

Gabbard cannot afford to lose a single vote. What do you see happening here?

Tamara Keith:

Right. It looks like she is in a increasingly good position. She certainly looks to be in a stronger position than she did during her hearing, which did not go particularly well for her.

She was frequently asked whether Edward Snowden was a traitor and she could not answer that or would not answer that question directly. But the reality is that we haven't seen a lot of senators really willing to put their necks out, Republican senators, willing to put their necks out and go up against Trump on his nominees.

They are repeatedly saying he wants these people. We're going to give them to him. And we should remember that he also had threatened to appoint them through recess appointments and to sort of force them in there if the Senate didn't go along with it.

So I don't know where we're going to see the pushback. We might see it with RFK Jr. We might not. I — we haven't at this point seen a lot of pushback, for instance, on the president's — the administration's actions to pause funding. We haven't really seen Republican House members or senators stand up and say, well, we're the Article I branch of the government and we have the power of the purse.

You aren't seeing a lot of that.

Amna Nawaz:

Amy, how do you look at all this?

And we should also point out that three senators did vote against Pete Hegseth on his confirmation for secretary of defense. He was later confirmed. But how do you look at this issue?

Amy Walter:

Right, including Susan Collins being one of those votes against Pete Hegseth.

I look at it similarly, which is, at this point, Republicans are treating the president as somebody who is not just the leader of the party, but one who has a mandate, a mandate that is even stronger than their own individual mandates, let's say, from their voters.

In many cases, you have Republican senators who and members of the House who got actually fewer votes than Donald Trump did in their district, so they are giving him a whole lot of runway. Now, where it really hits the road, again, comes down to the actual consequences hitting voters.

You started to hear a little bit of it today even among some of Trump's strongest supporters in Congress, questioning just what kinds of damage these tariffs could do to people in their communities and to the industries in their communities.

But, for now, they have learned that it is not worth it to get out over their skis, wait a little bit, and see what the impact is, and giving him, as I said, that runway to do what we talked about at this very beginning, do the disrupting and the moving of all these different programs in the way that they see voters endorsing.

Amna Nawaz:

Amy, before I let you go, in the 30 seconds or so I have left, we know the Dems now have their new DNC chair in the form of Ken Martin, the former Minnesota party chair.

What do you take away from his election?

Amy Walter:

It didn't really have a whole lot of intensity or ideology around it. I do think Democrats are still trying to find their way, and this becomes really important, Amna, that, as I just said earlier, what — the question of the consequences on average Americans.

I think that's what Democrats are counting on as helping them find some success, find their footing, find their way going forward. Until that happens, the goal of the DNC chair right now is simply raising money and keeping the infrastructure, keeping the employees, keeping all the folks who do the work on the ground engaged and focused.

Amna Nawaz:

Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, always great to see you both. Thank you.

Tamara Keith:

Good to see you.

Amy Walter:

You're welcome.