Trump dealt HUMILIATING loss as GOP VOTE AGAINST HIM

What this episode is about

In a surprising turn, several Republican lawmakers have publicly opposed President Trump’s tariff strategy, joining Democrats to pass a resolution that limits his ability to impose tariffs through emergency declarations. This bipartisan rebuke not only highlights a growing rift within the GOP but also raises questions about Trump's influence over party members amid ongoing concerns about the economy, which he has claimed is thriving.

Key takeaways

• Welcome to the Trump economy: where tariffs are a king's decree, and the American wallet pays the price.
• Even GOP rebels are realizing: Tariffs ain't just bad for business; they threaten the economic fabric of America.
• Constitutional values clash with party loyalty; some reps choose constituents over 'dear leader'—a rare act of bravery.
• When a Swiss conversation dictates trade policy, it’s no longer a negotiation; it’s Trump’s personal tantrum with global consequences.
• Bullying nations like Canada backfires—while Trump throws around tariffs, he’s actually losing ground in international trade.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Thomas Massie (Guest) · 2 min speaking
• Kevin Kiley (Guest) · 1 min speaking
• Don Bacon · 1 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Donald Trump, Congressman Thomas Massie, Don Bacon, Kevin Kiley
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Constitution, Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Supreme Court Justice, Donald Trump, Kanji Brown Jackson
4. 9:00 – 10:22: Midas Touch

Notable quotes from "Trump dealt HUMILIATING loss as GOP VOTE AGAINST HIM"

• You have first you have Thomas Massie.

  about Congressman Thomas Massie · at 0:41

• Imbalances and trade abuses that are happening, but we need to do it the right way consistent with the Constitution. And I worry about the president that we might be setting if there's a Democratic president.

  about Constitution · at 4:21

• The fact is Trump tries to act as if we're the only consumer or only manufacturer of products and we're just not. This is why the globalization and free trade have even ever come into.

  about Donald Trump · at 6:06

• Act being used by Trump to somehow justify him unilaterally imposing tariffs. This was rightly called out by Justice Kanji Brown Jackson. Well, that oral argument happened, but…

  about Kanji Brown Jackson · at 7:20

• Has the ability to reign in these taxes and Trump being out of control is trying to stop them, leaving the Supreme Court, the one body who can reign him in. You talk about what…

  about Supreme Court Justice · at 8:36

• Election year where you have Democrats making the price of goods and affordability the main issue. New Midas merch. Head to store.midestouch.com today and get yourself the best prodemocracy gear and show your support.

  about Midas Touch · at 10:04

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Central referenced political figure · 5 mentions · first at 0:31
  The discussion centers on President Trump’s tariff strategy, GOP defections against it, and the constitutional/supreme-court implications of his use of emergency powers to impose tariffs.
• Congressman Thomas Massie — Person · Referenced GOP dissenter / 'rebel' House member · 1 mention · first at 0:41
  Named as one of the Republicans who broke with party leadership/Trump on tariff-related procedure and authority, illustrating intra-party fracture.
• Kevin Kiley — Person · Referenced GOP dissenter / 'rebel' House member · 1 mention · first at 0:49
  Identified as a Republican who joined the anti-tariff procedural move; used as an example of members with district/political incentives to buck Trump/leadership.
  Thorn in the side of leadership and President Trump. Kevin Kylie, moderate from California. His district has been redrawn. He hasn't said which district he's going to run in.…
• Don Bacon — Person · Referenced GOP dissenter / 'rebel' House member · 1 mention · first at 0:59
  Cited as a Republican voting against Trump’s tariff approach; his retirement is presented as a factor enabling defection from party pressure.
  Up for a difficult reelection in the midterm elections coming later this year. And then Don Bacon, a moderate from Nebraska who's actually retiring from Congress. So those…
• Kanji Brown Jackson — Person · Referenced legal authority (Supreme Court Justice) · 1 mention · first at 7:26
  Cited as a justice who ‘rightly called out’ the legal theory enabling unilateral tariffs, supporting the episode’s constitutional argument that tariff power lies with Congress.
• Ronald Reagan — Person · Referenced historical authority figure · 1 mention · first at 4:34
  Invoked via a Canadian ad quoting Reagan criticizing tariffs, used to argue Trump’s tariff posture conflicts with traditional conservative/free-trade messaging.
  Trump also tried to bully Canada. He got so upset when they rightly released that ad about Ronald Reagan talking about how bad tariffs are, that he threatened to cancel…

Concepts & topics

• Constitution — Concept · Key argument · 4 mentions · first at 3:34
  Referenced as the legal basis for Congress's authority over tariffs, opposing presidential overreach.
• Supreme Court Justice — Concept · Key argument · 4 mentions · first at 6:52
  Mentioned as the potential arbiter in the dispute over presidential tariff powers, with an awaited decision.
• Epstein Transparency Act — Concept · Referenced legislation · 1 mention · first at 0:16
  Mentioned as a factor in Trump's loss of support, indicating its political impact.
  It's one thing for Trump to have lost support over the Epstein files, which he surely did when the Epstein Transparency Act passed. It's a whole other for him to lose GOP support over the economy.

Sponsors

• Midas Touch — Company · Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 10:08
  Promoted as a source for pro-democracy merchandise, likely a sponsor or affiliate of the podcast.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 But at what point is it on you? At what point are we in the Trump economy? Oh, I'd say we're there now. I'm I'm very proud of it.

0:06 And the NAS are 211. The joint resolution is passed. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

0:14 It's one thing for Trump to have lost support over the Epstein files, which he surely did when the Epstein Transparency Act passed. It's a whole other for him to lose GOP support over the economy. The one thing he keeps on saying is booming. So, some developing news overnight. A few GOP rebels issued a stunning rebuke of President Trump's tariff strategy yesterday.

0:34 So, they joined with Democrats to vote down legislation that would have once again delayed a vote on the president's tariffs.

0:41 You have first you have Thomas Massie. He's a Kentucky Republican, long been a thorn in the in the side of leadership and President Trump. Kevin Kylie, moderate from California. His district has been redrawn. He hasn't said which district he's going to run in. could be up for a difficult reelection uh in the midterm elections coming later this year. And then Don Bacon, a moderate from Nebraska who's actually retiring from Congress. So those three are kind of outliers within the party. Each and have individual circumstances that might lend them to kind of buck party leadership. But it's very interesting.

1:13 You have this vote here that had been the speaker of the house had basically been using a procedural maneuver to prevent these votes from coming to the floor. What do they do? They basically end the president's ability to use an emergency declaration to impose tariffs on multiple countries. He's using kind of the same vehicle to impose tariffs on Canada, on Mexico, on Brazil. And so this would end that ability. the speaker didn't want it to come to a a floor vote, but now with these three Republican rebels, the fact that the speaker has such a slim majority in the House, they are able to force these votes, and it's likely you'll get kind of a rolling situation where you have vote after vote after vote.

1:55 We have some serious GOP defections that may just save us all. The fact is that enough members of the GOP voted against Trump's tariffs, voted against Mike Johnson's proposal to not allow any bill regarding Trump's tariffs to even reach the House floor until the end of July. I mean, could you imagine that? Knowing that something is that unpopular that you have to stop a vote from even occurring about it in order to please dear leader. The fact is enough of the GOP members voted against Trump's tariffs despite the fact that Trump has already gone out on truth social and said that they plan on primary them is because they knew they were going to lose. The tariffs have been a disaster for the American economy. Trump acting as if they were somehow his own personal toolbox used to bully people. I mean, he just came out and talked about the fact that he spoke with somebody in Switzerland and didn't like the way that

2:58 she was talking to him and so decided to increase the tariffs by a larger percentage than he had and then had to walk it back because he got nice phone calls from Switzerland that convinced him otherwise. This is a bully who uses tariffs in order to get people to talk nicely to him. and the rest of the American people and the American economy is dragged along with it. This is why even among Republicans and even among the GOP, they're basically saying enough is enough.

3:30 We'll see what happens. This is the right vote for my district. And I think under the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8 is clear that this authority resides with Congress. And uh I think this was something that for me relied on what that text of the Constitution was and what's in the best interest of my district. We have farmers, agricultural producers in western Colorado and southern Colorado that are impacted by these tariffs. We also have the largest steel rail manufacturer in the United States in PBLO, Colorado in my district and they were affected by this as well.

3:56 So, at the end of the day, I looked at the constitution. I looked at what was in the best interest of my district and I took the vote. It's not easy. Um, but it's the right thing and I stand by.

4:04 Do you are you worried about getting the wrap from the president? Uh, we'll see. I mean, listen, I do the right thing and what the consequences are, we'll have to see. But uh listen, and I say this as somebody that supports the president's agenda of onoring, reshoring manufacturing. He's absolutely right. There's a lot that we need to be doing. There are a lot of trade uh imbalances and trade abuses that are happening, but we need to do it the right way consistent with the Constitution. And I worry about the president that we might be setting if there's a Democratic president.

4:30 Trump also tried to bully Canada. He got so upset when they rightly released that ad about Ronald Reagan talking about how bad tariffs are, that he threatened to cancel negotiations. Well, in January, China entered into a deal with Canada that was favorable to both countries. Canada had once had a 100% tariff on electric vehicle market coming out of China. They've reduced that significantly. And China then reduced tariffs on Canadian goods.

5:00 President Trump's repeated bullying of Canada and its eloquent Prime Minister Carney is both embarrassing and alarming. Our country could not have a better neighbor or trading partner than Canada. Declaring emergencies where none exist, Trump uh delights in these executive decrees for tariffs. Uh he can act like a king and he's enabled to be a king-like figure on this issue by his Republican enablers even though it's costing American families thousands of dollars. 76,000 American manufacturing jobs lost amidst Trump chaos. Small businesses losing out if they don't have a lobbyist who can go to Mara Lago and bargain with Trump. This vote is about affirming no king, no rule by decree from the president when he has no authority to do this and recognizing that our constitution places responsibility for trade and tariffs where it should be right here in this Congress. I yield back, gentlemen.

6:06 The fact is Trump tries to act as if we're the only consumer or only manufacturer of products and we're just not. This is why the globalization and free trade have even ever come into existence and why tariffs for decades and decades have not. Not because people are economists and presidents and cabinet members are somehow trying to take actions that are good but bad economically. No, tariffs are bad economically. That's why they haven't been used as a tool. Other presidents, other administrations have cared about making money for the American people just as much. Now, Trump likes tariffs because he's using them as his own bully tool. So wake up Supreme Court. Supreme Court still has that tariff decision in there. They heard the oral arguments in early November and seemed like most of the justices didn't like the fact that an act that was put forward after actions by Richard Nixon, Congress was

7:10 trying to reinilaterally putting forth terrorists because they didn't like what Richard Nixon had done is now being used by Trump. That same act being used by Trump to somehow justify him unilaterally imposing tariffs. This was rightly called out by Justice Kanji Brown Jackson. Well, that oral argument happened, but we're still waiting for the opinion. We're waiting for the opinion a very long time. In the meantime, every time that Trump uses those tariffs as his own bully tool, when he tells everybody that he's, you know, imposing those uh tariffs on Switzerland because he doesn't like the way the person talked to him, shows how much this isn't about national security, but about his own ego. and Congress's recent action, the GOP's recent action is also very important for any Supreme Court decision that comes because the fact is Congress has the ability to tax, not the president. And Congress seems to

8:14 be finally acting because the GOP is fracturing from within because of how unpopular these tariffs are. This now goes to the Senate. If the Senate passes it also and Trump vetos it, which most likely he will, it further affirms in front of the Supreme Court that Congress wants to reign in these taxes. Congress has the ability to reign in these taxes and Trump being out of control is trying to stop them, leaving the Supreme Court, the one body who can reign him in. You talk about what the Supreme Court is going to rule here. You know, we've been we all talk to Zack Shfeld. He's our courts and legal reporter. Every time I see him, I ask him when the when the Supreme Court is going to rule on this, and they haven't, and they keep pushing it back, and it could come, it could be the summer before they uh actually rule on this. What's so this is a symbolic vote, but the politics at play here could be very consequential because what

9:11 is going to happen in an election year rolling through the summer, you're going to have a series of these difficult votes that Republicans are going to have to make their voices heard. Do they want to side with a president who says this is a his signature economic policy. This is going to bring manufacturing back. This is the mo, you know, he frames this as the most important thing that basically that he's doing as president. And without these, he would not be able to use the power of the presidency to in his terms do all this good that's coming to America. But you have polling that shows that largely Americans don't really believe that and they think that these tariffs are leading to higher prices, you know, and making things more difficult for them economically. Now, each Republican is going to have to put their vote in on whether they side with the president on that or they side with

9:56 the American people who think these aren't working. That's a very difficult situation for Republicans to have to place their votes on, especially in an election year where you have Democrats making the price of goods and affordability the main issue. New Midas merch. Head to store.midestouch.com today and get yourself the best prodemocracy gear and show your support. That's store.midestouch.com.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Trump dealt HUMILIATING loss as GOP VOTE AGAINST HIM"?

Thomas Massie (Guest), Kevin Kiley (Guest), Don Bacon.

What is "Trump dealt HUMILIATING loss as GOP VOTE AGAINST HIM" about?

In a surprising turn, several Republican lawmakers have publicly opposed President Trump’s tariff strategy, joining Democrats to pass a resolution that limits his ability to impose tariffs through emergency declarations. This bipartisan rebuke not only highlights a growing rift within the GOP but also raises questions about Trump's influence over party members amid ongoing concerns about the…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

10 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, Constitution, Supreme Court Justice, Congressman Thomas Massie, Kevin Kiley, Don Bacon. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump dealt HUMILIATING loss as GOP VOTE AGAINST HIM"?

The episode runs 10 min; the transcript is about 1,824 words in 18 timestamped sections.

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