It was last Tuesday that President Donald Trump announced it was "Liberation Day" with regards to reciprocal tariffs on foreign nations. Just about a week later, with numerous countries coming to the negotiation table, the president announced a 90-day pause, while he's going to be that much more tough on China. There's certainly been relief and excitement from not only Trump's fellow Republicans, but also the markets. Democrats, however, are a different story.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) days in leadership and even the Senate may be numbered, given that polls show New York Democratic primary voters preferring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) if there were to be such a primary matchup for 2028. However, Schumer still has that leadership position for now and is thus weighing in.
On Wednesday, in the minutes and hours that Trump announced the 90-day pause, Schumer posted multiple times to his official X account. The first included a take coming off as desperate, least of all because it was in all caps. It claimed that Trump was "retreat[ing] on tariffs because of Trump slump."
Actually, it was because numerous countries were coming to the negotiating table. Further, Trump did anything but retreat on China, given that he's increased tariffs against such a nation.
TRUMP RETREATS ON TARIFFS BECAUSE OF TRUMP SLUMP
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 9, 2025
Then, Schumer put out a video message ranting and raving about the "chaos" caused by Trump. As an aside, Schumer very much looks his age, 74 years old, if not older, which is another potential strike against him in that potential primary fight against AOC.
The video begins by also emphasizing how Trump is supposedly "in retreat," and he laughably credits Democrats for it. "You think it's a game. You think it's like Red Light, Green Light," he then charges about Trump, after claiming the president is "playing games" and "think[s] it's a game," going for that emphasis on that "chaos." There's also some fearmongering about "the damage" Trump has supposedly done, which Schumer claims "is permanent, and real, and deep."
Schumer then attacks Trump on the economy overall. While the president has room to grow on that key issue, he's daring far better than how his successor/predecessor finished his term. According to RealClearPolling, President Joe Biden had a net -20.7 on the economy during his final months, and he then saddled Trump with a poor economy and rampant inflation to be cleaned up.
In conclusion, Schumer returned to that claim about Trump playing games, also showing he has no clue about what's the idea behind these tariffs, despite how the president has been talking about them for years. "What you're doing, Donald Trump, is hurting the American people as you play games. Whatever pops into your head, the next hour, the next day, the next week is what you say what we're doing with tariffs, and they constantly contradict each other, make no sense, harm the American economy, and worst of all, American families."
This chaos is all a game to Donald Trump.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 9, 2025
He thinks he’s playing Red Light, Green Light with the economy.
But it is very real for American families. pic.twitter.com/IIDySI1e7z
His last post from Wednesday, and his most recent to that account as of early Thursday morning, again goes for the message of how Trump is "reeling" and "retreating." It also seeks to portray Democrats as having the upper hand, by claiming the president "is feeling the heat across America about how bad his tariffs are" and concluding that they "will not let up."
"But we will not let up," is how Schumer concludes that post, to be exact. Who is the "we," though?
Donald Trump is feeling the heat across America about how bad his tariffs are.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 9, 2025
He is reeling and he is retreating.
But we will not let up.
These were not even the only or the first posts of the posts from Schumer about tariffs, though. At around the time time that Trump made his announcement over Truth Social about the 90-day pause for most countries while cracking down harder on China, mere minutes later, in fact, Schumer had put out a post full of fearmongering, made even more embarrassing based on the timing.
As Schumer hysterically claimed in such a post, Trump "has singlehandedly teed us up for a recession."
Donald Trump is coming at Americans from every direction:
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 9, 2025
He’s draining 401ks
He’s sabotaging Social Security
He’s gutting health care
He’s driving up inflation
He has singlehandedly teed us up for a recession.
Speaking of recessions, Goldman Sachs earlier on Wednesday, shortly before Trump made his announcement, claimed that they found it "unlikely" that the White House was going "to quickly reverse most of the new tariffs," and so were raising their predictions on a recession. That statement did say that they would update their predictions if the White House did, though, and so sure enough they had to come up with a new statement with lowered predictions about a recession. We saw no such update from Schumer, however.
Goldman Sachs' updated statement wasn't the only good news, though. Again, the markets reacted quite well to Trump's pause, with U.S. stock indexes experiencing their biggest one-day point gains ever, the Dow Jones included. A live update from CNBC on Wednesday also pointed to how "Dow surges 2,900 points, S&P 500 posts biggest gain since 2008 on Trump tariff reversal." Schumer didn't talk about that in his posts, though. Such updates don't exactly fit his narrative on how Trump is causing "chaos," do they?
Schumer isn't the only Democratic leader to focus on tariffs as a perceived win for his party, though. Over the weekend, The Washington Post published a piece on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and how he was confident that Democrats would "comfortably" win back the House if the elections were held that day. The reasons mentioned included tariffs and special election victories for Democrats.
Well, the 2026 midterm elections were not that day, and a lot can change from now and over 18 months from now. Heck, a lot changed even just in a few days on tariffs when it comes to Trump's announcement on tariffs and how the market reacted.
When it comes to special elections, Democrats did win state legislature races in Pennsylvania, despite those being heavily Republican districts, and the Democrat-backed candidate did win the state Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin. However, the same night as that race in Wisconsin, Republicans also won two special election races in Florida for the U.S. House.
Meanwhile, the reaction from Republicans has been relief, as it should have been. Tariffs could have been quite the gamble, and Trump himself urged the American people to hang tight when it comes to the beneficial effects.
A wild 7 days in Washington
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) April 9, 2025
- At least 3 R senators personally urged Trump to use leverage to make some deals (Lee, Graham, Cruz)
- Applause at GOP lunch today after pause announced
- Despite disavowal of possible pause, persistent rumbling in WH about it
- New 90 day fuse ...
New: The bond market had a few powerful GOP lawmakers in its corner ahead of today's pause.
— Eleanor Mueller (@Eleanor_Mueller) April 9, 2025
That includes Cruz, Graham and Lee, all of whom told @BurgessEv that they personally urged Trump to strike deals ASAP.
Also with @ShelbyTalcott and @LizRHoffman: https://t.co/7XDS3v9Zqg
One Republican reacting in a positive manner was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). In addition to being referenced in an article from Semafor, Cruz broke down the very real potential consequences in last Friday's episode of "The Verdict," during which he spoke about the positive and negative effects that could have followed. Among the positive consequences, which had already been happening and have continued to happen included countries rushing to the negotiating table.
Cruz also reacted to the announcement about a 90-day pause when speaking with Fox News. He not only spoke about what he urged Trump to do but called the day's announcement "terrific news."
I urged President Trump to focus on two things:
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 9, 2025
Focus on China.
Focus on reciprocity.
He did, and today’s announcement is terrific news. pic.twitter.com/fWIY6URWdb
There were a few directions that the tariffs could have gone in, but that there was a key negotiator like Trump and his team in office to handle them, certainly helps.
No wonder there's been all these memes going around about his book, "The Art of the Deal." Perhaps Xi Jinping and Schumer should give it a read.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 9, 2025
😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/9TDZQIrowu
— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) April 9, 2025
