IMMEDIATE RELEASE 29 August 2025WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUNDToday’s Events in Historical PerspectiveAmerica’s Longest-Running Column Founded 1932Four senators in the breach?By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans are not pleased with what they are seeing and not saying above a whisper. They are tired of defending President Trump’s off-again, on-again trade wars, his blunt force firings of career officials, and his weaponization of the Justice Dept to prosecute anybody who dares to cross him.They are not blind to what Trump is doing and the course he is setting, and they could stop him. Only they can stop him.His wild imposition of tariffs, for example, for which there is no unifying rhyme or reason, sets the stage for a GOP revolt. He is giving these elected Republicans good cause by slapping inflationary, trade-war-initiating tariffs on friends and foes alike. And his 50 percent tariff on an array of goods from India is especially egregious, alienating a friend while increasing the cost for American consumers for everything from textiles to electronics.Imposing tariffs according to the Constitution is the prerogative of Congress, not the executive, and all it would take is four Republican senators to stop this madness.India is a U.S. ally, so why the onerous tariffs? Trump is angry with Prime Minister Modi for buying oil from Russia, so this is how he shows his displeasure. China buys even more oil from Russia, but Trump’s tariffs are selective, and he does not want to interfere this way with the world’s second-largest economy, at least not yet.Meanwhile, Trump’s tariff policy is beginning to realign the world. As we write, the leaders of Russia and India are preparing to meet with Xi Jinping, the leader of China. It is a classic case of unintended consequences that need not have been had anyone in Congress or Trump’s Cabinet dared to speak truth to Trump.Pretty much everybody Trump interacts with has concluded that it is best to humor him. The submission of Republicans to Trump was on full display in his recent Cabinet meeting, when for nearly four hours, they went around the room telling Trump how great he is.A similar event happened when European leaders gathered in the Oval Office to congratulate Trump on his peace-keeping efforts, which failed to bring peace in Russia’s war with Ukraine.Privately, these leaders see through Trump’s bombast, but they do not want to walk into a trap the way Ukrainian President Zelenskyy did months ago when Trump and Vice President Vance ganged up on him for not being sufficiently subservient.Trump has an inordinate need for affirmation, a need that could be diagnosed as Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which makes him an easy mark for Russian President Putin, the one-time KGB agent. While continuing to put off any meaningful additional sanctions on Russia, Trump prefers showing the photo Putin sent him of the two of them greeting each other at their Alaskan summit.We repeat, it only takes four senators to stop this madness, senators such as Murkowski and Collins from Alaska and Maine, the retiring Thom Tillis from North Carolina, Mitch McConnell and libertarian Rand Paul from Kentucky, and Lindsey Graham from South Carolina.Graham is ready to tee up sanctions against Russia once Trump gives him the word. The bipartisan legislation has more than 80 cosponsors.Former majority leader McConnell could have stopped Trump when he had the power, and he should regret that. His rationale is that, however bad Trump is, Democrats are worse.There is plenty of blame to go around, but there is no rationale for inaction that the history books will find worthy. If Trump’s Rasputin (the mad monk who advised Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his wife), conservative activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, can walk into the Oval Office and tell Trump whom he should fire, Republican senators can do the same instead of whispering in the wind. See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).Twitter: @douglas_cohn© 2025 U.S. News Syndicate, IncDistributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
CandC-29-August-2025-Four-senators-in-the-breach.docx