Republican Sen. Thom Tillis on Tuesday expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s tariff strategies and demanded that the U.S. trade representative tell him whom he gets to “choke out” if the plan fails.
“I’m not a trade expert, and I’m not going to question it at this point,” the senator from North Carolina said to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who was testifying at a Senate Finance Committee hearing. “The other thing in management consulting we like to focus on is this concept of ‘one throat to choke.’ In other words, when you’re finally taking a look at a strategy, someone has to own it, and you can’t say that it’s the president or the vice president.”
“The decision maker who decided the a la prima approach, who has obviously had to have spent time anticipating what we saw in the markets and some of the pushback — I’m assuming this all got gamed out,” Tillis continued. “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?”
While Tillis, a senator from a swing state, made it clear at several points during the hearing that he was not concluding that tariffs had failed, he did seek to find out who gets the potential blame if they do. He highlighted concerns that tariffs would wallop a state like North Carolina, and that people ready to retire would lose substantial value in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts. The stock market has dropped considerably in recent weeks as Trump has announced massive tariffs on much of the world.
Greer: “Well, Senator, you can certainly always talk to me—”
Tillis: “But are you at the tip of the spear?”
Greer: “Well, I’m at the tip of the spear, certainly.”
Tillis: “Did you propose the a la prima approach?”
Greer: “So, first of all, I would push back, senator, just a little bit on this. For now, we’ve excluded pharmaceuticals and semiconductors to take a different kind of approach.”
