Outspoken Democrat Jasmine Crockett reveals what GOP colleagues really think about Trump tariffs

As Donald Trump vows to push ahead with a sweeping tariff regime that blindsided allies, spooked markets, and left America’s ports eerily quiet, one firebrand Democrat is revealing what many in the GOP really think, but are too afraid to say out loud.

In a fiery Friday night interview on CNN, Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a progressive rising star and one of the most outspoken members of Congress, unleashed a bombshell.

Crockett claims Republican lawmakers are privately seething over Trump’s chaotic trade policy, but are too cowed by the MAGA machine to do anything about it.

‘It’s absolutely insane,’ Crockett said bluntly. ‘Behind closed doors, they will talk about how these things are crazy… You can find plenty of Republicans that will tell you that these tariffs are a problem.’ 

She didn’t name names but the fractures in the GOP’s economic messaging are already beginning to show, with prominent figures like Senator Rand Paul, Senator Chuck Grassley, and Rep. Don Bacon publicly voicing opposition to Trump’s latest trade salvos. 

But Crockett revealed that there is far more dissent among the Republican party than the GOP would have voters believe. 

‘They literally were silent,’ Crockett added, describing recent committee hearings where Republican lawmakers refused to debate common-sense amendments.

‘It was almost like they were told, “Don’t say anything… we just have to vote down these common-sense amendments and get through this, because this is what we’ve been told to do.”‘ 

Crockett’s depiction of a party essentially frozen in fear comes amid growing fallout from Trump’s tariff blitz – an economic gamble that has already been felt from the factory floor to the corner store.

At the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest gateway for goods entering the United States, the sound of cranes and thud of containers has given way to an unsettling silence.

For the week of May 4, traffic at the port is expected to plunge by up to 35% compared to this time last year. 

Neighboring Long Beach is projecting a 30% drop in imports for the month. Dozens of ships have cancelled their voyages.

Retailers, manufacturers, and logistics operators have slammed on the brakes.

Shipments from China, still the largest source of US imports, have plummeted amid Trump’s erratic tariff flip-flops, including levies as high as 145% on some goods.

‘You could hear a pin drop,’ Port Director Gene Seroka said, calling it ‘very unusual.’ 

‘Many retailers and manufacturers alike have hit the pause button,’ Seroka warned. ‘If this trade dispute goes on for any length of time, we’ll likely see fewer selections on store shelves and online buying platforms.’ 

Consumers are also about to feel it in higher prices, empty shelves, and fewer product choices. 

In Southern California, where nearly a million logistics workers keep America’s supply chains moving, frustration is boiling over.

Antonio Montalbo, a small business owner running a trucking outfit near the ports, said his maintenance costs have doubled and  that work has dried up. 

‘We’re angry at Donald Trump,’ said the 37-year-old. ‘He needs to go check out the country a little bit, because he has a lot of angry truck drivers.’ 

A crucial engine part made in China now costs twice what it did just weeks ago.

Montalbo voted for Trump in 2024, hoping for economic relief. What he got, he said, is worse than inflation.

‘Now we have something worse than inflation, called tariffs.’ 

And yet, back in D.C., Trump continues to downplay the damage. 

When pressed in an NBC interview Friday on the looming recession warnings, Trump casually brushed off concerns.

‘Everything’s OK,’ he said. ‘This is a transition period. I think we’re going to do fantastically.’ 

It was an eerily upbeat assessment that flew in the face of reality. 

Hours earlier, the Commerce Department reported the first quarterly GDP decline in three years. 

Still, Trump remains defiant and on his Truth Social, he doubled down.

‘We’re only in a transition stage, just getting started!’ he posted. 

Back on Capitol Hill, Crockett said the tariffs are just one example of how the GOP’s public bravado masks private panic. 

Republicans, she claims, are too terrified to confront Trump or to face their own constituents.

‘It seems like they do whatever [Donald Trump] wants them to do at all times,’ Crockett said. 

‘That’s why they don’t want to go out and listen to their constituents at their town halls.’ 

It’s a damning allegation but one that resonates. Voter anger is rising across the country, particularly among small businesses and working-class Americans who feel abandoned.

‘They literally were silent,’ Crockett said again. ‘They’re afraid to say anything, because they know they can’t win.’ 

Meanwhile, in hearings and legislative markups, the silence from Republicans has become deafening.

But behind the scenes, the dam may be starting to break.

Grassley, the veteran Iowa senator, recently told Politico that Trump’s tariff policy was ‘misguided’ and warned it could cripple American agriculture. 

Rand Paul, a libertarian stalwart, has called for returning tariff power to Congress.

Even Bacon, a centrist Republican from Nebraska, warned tariffs could ‘hurt the very people we’re trying to help.’

But unless more Republicans speak up publicly, Crockett warned, the economic damage will continue and the silence will be seen as complicity.

‘They know this is a disaster,’ Crockett said. ‘They just don’t have the spine to say it.’