A number of Republican legislators spearheaded or joined in efforts to rein in the president's authority on tariffs.

"When [President William McKinley], most famously, put tariffs on in 1890, they lost 50% of their seats in the next election,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told reporters. “When Smoot and Hawley put on their tariff in the early 1930s, we lost the House and the Senate for 60 years. So they’re not only bad economically, they’re bad politically.”