Sen. Chris Murphy rips Trump for using tariffs to gain fealty from private industry

With the world assessing the fiscal fallout from President Trump’s bold tariff plans, Sen. Chris Murphy is bashing him by saying the levies aren’t about economics at all.

Rather, the Connecticut Democrat says Mr. Trump’s plan should be viewed as a political tool to win loyalty from industrial sectors.

In a lengthy thread on X, he said the president will use potential relief from the tariffs to gain fealty from private industry.

“Independent industry has power. The tariffs are Trump’s tool to erode that independence,” Mr. Murphy wrote on X. “Now, one by one, every industry or company will need to pledge loyalty to Trump in order to get sanctions relief.”

Mr. Trump announced a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, plus higher, reciprocal levies on dozens of nations that impose expensive barriers on U.S. goods entering their countries.

Mr. Murphy, a constant Trump antagonist, likened the tariffs to the president’s drive to punish law firms and universities whose policies and practices run afoul of his agenda or amount to “lawfare” against him. Some lawyers and universities are pushing back, while others have been conciliatory toward the White House and struck deals to lessen the pain.

“The tariffs are DESIGNED to create economic hardship. Why? So that Trump has a straight face rationale for releasing them, business by business or industry by industry,” Mr. Murphy wrote. “As he adjusts or grants relief, it’s a win-win: the economy improves and dissent disappears.”

Mr. Trump is casting his tariff plan in economic terms, saying American workers have been undercut by foreign trade policies that let other countries tap U.S. spending power while shutting their markets to U.S. producers.

The Trump administration says the levies are a long-overdue restructuring of a global trade order stacked against the U.S. and its workers.

“I expect most countries to start to really examine their trade policy toward the United States of America and stop picking on us,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC on Thursday. “Stop saying that we can’t sell our corn to India, stop saying that we can’t sell our beef anywhere. Just stop treating us so poorly.”