The entwining of tariffs and US politics will continue

Significance With trade policy, particularly towards China, likely to have an unusually high-profile role in this year’s presidential election, there is a growing awareness of the extent to which the executive branch has fostered an ability to act unilaterally in an area for which Congress has constitutional authority. Impacts Biden’s emphasis on "well-paying union jobs", and union support for his campaigns in 2020 and 2024, has bolstered his support for tariffs. Donald Trump has made tariffs a central part of his ‘America First’ approach to foreign policy, and he will extol them while campaigning. Europe remains wary of Washington’s readiness to use tariffs against economic, rather than ideological, competitors. Congress shows little interest in reclaiming the power it has ceded to the presidency to impose tariffs on national security grounds.