Congress

Trump’s Greenland tariffs could squeeze Hill Republicans

Published

5 months ago

January 21, 2026

President Donald Trump’s threat to weaponize steep new tariffs as part of his bid to acquire Greenland could soon put queasy Republicans on the spot.

House and Senate Democrats plan to force votes as soon as next month to block the European tariffs Trump announced over the weekend, according to two aides granted anonymity to disclose private scheduling. That, for now, is likely to be the main avenue of congressional accountability as the president amps up his campaign targeting the icy Danish territory.

Democrats are waiting for Trump to file his executive order, but once he does, a resolution would ripen about 20 days later, according to one Senate aide granted anonymity to describe internal planning.

While some lawmakers have floated using the spending legislation now moving through Congress ahead of next week’s government funding deadline as a way to block Trump, leaders of both parties are wary of taking any steps that could lead to a government shutdown. And, as POLITICO first reported, Danish officials have privately urged against forcing a vote on a separate war powers authorization unless it has overwhelming bipartisan support.

But the 10 percent tariffs threatened against Denmark, France, Germany, the U.K. and four other countries that recently sent a small contingent of troops to Greenland offer a clear opportunity for congressional pushback from Republicans uneasy about the geopolitics of Trump’s audacious demands, their own free-trade views or a combination of both.

The Greenland reckoning comes as the House prepares to come off the sidelines on the gamut of Trump’s second-term tariffs. Speaker Mike Johnson has so far been able to shield Trump — and his own GOP members — from a direct confrontation over the president’s aggressive levies, which have sparked private heartburn among some Republicans.

But that appears to be coming to an end. A procedural maneuver that blocked efforts to cancel prior Trump tariffs expires next week, and Republicans have no firm plan to extend the protections for the president. Already one House Republican — Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska — says he is likely to oppose any effort by Johnson to block a cancellation of the Greenland-related tariffs from coming to the floor.

“It’s crazy — they’re an ally, and we’ve alienated our good friends,” Bacon said Tuesday about Trump’s move targeting the Danes and other NATO countries that have backed them.

With Republicans holding a threadbare House majority, and Democrats outnumbering them on some days, even one or two GOP defectors might be able to quash any effort to prevent a tariff vote.

Three Republicans voted in September against Johnson’s last effortto block tariff votes: Reps. Kevin Kiley of California, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana, who could be likely allies of Bacon.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) also said he would oppose any effort to prevent tariff votes and doesn’t support the president’s plan to impose new trade levies on European countries over Greenland.

“I think that the Trump economic policies overall are having a tremendous positive effect on the economy. I think the tariffs are hurting. And when you’re trying to accelerate, it doesn’t make much sense to tap on the brakes,” McClintock said Tuesday.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said Trump’s plan to slap financial penalties on European allies over Greenland is a “bad idea” and that he wants to know the rationale for preventing a vote on blocking them. Fitzpatrick didn’t say how he would vote if he had the chance.

“My sense is that he’s trying to gain leverage, but I still don’t support the rhetoric,” Fitzpatrick said. “Denmark has given us full access to the country, they’re a NATO ally. There’s no reason for any of this.”

Republicans are already on edge as they await a ruling from the Supreme Court about Trump’s ability to use emergency powers to implement tariffs at will. The justices skipped an opportunity to issue a decision Tuesday, and it could be a month or more before they rule.

Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) said the legality of Trump’s latest tariff threat over Greenland is “a question that I have not seen answered yet.” He said he was wary of allowing a president to deploy tariffs as a way to secure new territory.

“I think if it’s to address trade imbalances or trade abuses … then that’s the sort of thing where tariffs are certainly appropriate,” Hurd said. “Outside of that context, I think it gets more problematic.”

Johnson largely sidestepped a question Tuesday night on Trump’s threat to use tariffs as the latest salvo in his bid to acquire Greenland. He downplayed the odds of a conflict, saying that the U.S. has “great allies” and “everybody there wants to work towards a solution together.”

The Senate is likely to pass a resolution to block the Greenland-related tariffs when it comes up for a vote. Already three Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have publicly bashed Trump’s tariffs and urged Congress to take back its institutional prerogatives. Democrats would only need to pick up four GOP votes, and Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have both been publicly critical of Trump’s Greenland threats and previously supported resolutions targeting Trump’s other tariffs.

“The way we are going about projecting power in the Arctic is costly, divisive and unnecessary,” Tillis said during a Blue Light News panel Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The House and Senate both voting to block Trump’s tariffs would be a significant moment — marking the first time both chambers have moved to check Trump’s most controversial trade tactic. But the president would surely veto such an effort, and there are no signs he is yet facing the type of GOP jailbreak that would allow Congress to override him.

But forcing a vote stands to make things uncomfortable for those in the GOP who have tried to telegraph their discomfort with the Greenland push without fully breaking with Trump.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), for instance, sidestepped weighing in directly on Trump’s latest tariff threat Tuesday, instead saying that the president has “been a strong supporter of tariffs.”

“We’ve had a great relationship with them in the past, and there’s a significant military presence,” Barrasso added on Greenland. “We need to build on that.”

House Democrats, meanwhile, are seizing on the momentum to try to squeeze their GOP counterparts.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, recited Tillis’ and Murkowski’s remarks during a meeting of the panel Tuesday. He pressed Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska, a tariff-skeptical Republican who was testifying on an unrelated bill, whether he would support an effort by Johnson to block a vote on the Greenland-related tariffs.

Smith said he would “prefer to vote on tariffs, certainly,” while adding he would need to look over any new language before making a commitment.

“I wasn’t expecting to have this discussion,” Smith said, later adding: “I’ve been on the record for saying I’m not a fan of tariffs.”

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Congress

Congressional Black Caucus blasts Slotkin over her calls for new leadership in the House

Published

12 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Congressional Black Caucus is emphatically declaring its support for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — and denouncing Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s call for new leadership in Congress.

In a statement posted to social media on Friday, the entirely Democratic CBC declared that it stands united behind the nation’s first Black minority leader of the House. The caucus accused the Michigan senator of “posturing for higher office in 2028” and called attention to her votes to approve multiple members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

“House Democrats don’t need a lesson on reading the political moment from someone who handed Donald Trump one of the most corrupt Cabinets in American history,” the CBC said. “Voting to confirm Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and five other Trump Cabinet secretaries is not the posture of someone who understood the moment’ after 2024.”

The CBC closed its defense of Jeffries with a sharp parting shot of remaining focused on providing for Americans rather than “engaging in distractions that only serve to divide Democrats at a moment when unity and resolve are essential.”

A spokesperson for Slotkin, who has repeatedly called for a new generation of leadership in Congress, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congress

Key Democrats urge House to reject kids’ safety proposal

Published

15 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Commerce Committee’s top Democrat Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) warned House lawmakers against advancing their chamber’s version of the Kids Online Safety Act, arguing it would face intense lobbying from tech companies in the Senate and risk unraveling years of bipartisan work.

“If it is passed by the House it will come to the Senate,” Blumenthal, the bill’s Senate cosponsor, told reporters at a Friday press briefing. The Connecticut Democrat said he is concerned senators will be influenced by the tech industry’s “armies of lawyers and lobbyists” who may “confuse and exploit” misunderstandings about a House bill with the same name as a Senate version but excludes key provisions, such as the “duty of care.” (This concept requires online companies to design social media platforms with an eye for children’s safety.)

“We’re not going to let bad legislation with a good title just get across and think somebody’s done something,” Cantwell said.

The House version of KOSA — which is included in the KIDS Act, a revised bipartisan package that the Energy and Commerce Committee advanced along party lines in March — is scheduled to be considered on the House floor next week under suspension of the rules.

“We need to stop this bill in the House, and we need to prevent the White House from forming an alliance with Big Tech on this issue,” said Blumenthal, who characterized the version of KOSA that House leadership is pushing as a “sham.”

Both Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern that Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could adopt the House version of KOSA in a kids’ safety package he has yet to publicly release but has pledged to markup by August recess. Cruz said “negotiations are ongoing” earlier this week when asked by Blue Light News whether he would be open to incorporating such changes put forward in the House.

Cruz’s package is expected to include KOSA as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media, and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots.

Although Blumenthal remains hopeful that Cruz will “stay true to his first vote in favor of KOSA,” which overwhelmingly passed in the Senate last Congress, the Connecticut Democrat said Friday he’s worried Cruz and others may be tempted to “take the bait” and abandon the bill’s basic principles.

Congress

Moderates beware: Mamdani coalition portends a dramatically different Democratic Party in NYC

Published

19 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — A coalition powered by Mayor Zohran Mamdani expanded the left’s reach Tuesday, winning younger voters across racial and ethnic lines and once again upending conventional wisdom about elections in New York City.

A series of hotly contested congressional and state elections pit a slate of Mamdani-backed democratic socialists and progressives against establishment candidates who, in several cases, differed little on policy aside from U.S.-Israel relations.

The results were staggering.

Midterm election cycles in deep-blue New York City tend to be sleepy affairs. Both this year and in 2022, just over 500,000 people cast ballots, less than 20 percent of eligible voters. But turnout within a congressional district spanning Upper Manhattan and the Bronx increased by roughly 50 percent between 2022 and Tuesday, with more than 66,000 voters heading to the polls.

In another seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, turnout more than doubled from 2022, though state and federal elections were held on different days that year and the seat was not competitive, which would have reduced the number of voters going to the polls.

Congressional candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America were able to replicate the mayor’s success by winning younger Latino voters in Brooklyn and a majority of Black voters in Harlem. Combined with the DSA’s base in relatively wealthy neighborhoods, the result charted the far left’s broadening appeal and a potential reorientation of the electorate that will influence races for years to come.

“This was a big wave for DSA and they did a good job capitalizing on it,” said Evan Roth Smith, a pollster with Slingshot Strategies. “The question now is: Was this a wave cycle that will abate, or is it the start of the takeover?”

Much of Mamdani’s base is concentrated in the so-called “commie-corridor,” a series of neighborhoods along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront filled with young, educated and affluent voters who’ve propelled several DSA candidates into office. They went gaga over Mamdani’s candidacy and, as Tuesday’s results show, will turn out for candidates he supports.

The area was crucial to Assemblymember Claire Valdez’s crushing 56-38 defeat of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

“The factor that felt most significant to me were all of these New Yorkers who got activated and politicized in the mayor’s race last year who were looking for the next fight,” said Andrew Epstein, a political adviser to Mamdani who worked on Valdez’ campaign. “Those people didn’t go away. And they want to keep going.”

Valdez also won several heavily Latino areas that were expected to break for her opponent.

Reynoso was born in Brooklyn to Dominican parents and just a few years ago was a City Council member representing Bushwick, a long-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood that’s home to Latino families and young hipsters. Valdez was born in Texas, moved to New York City in 2015 and served in the state Assembly for just one term before launching her Mamdani-backed bid for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat.

She ended up winning areas of Bushwick by even greater margins than the total results — in some election districts winning upwards of 80 percent of the vote.

“You don’t win the district by 35 points if you don’t have broad advantages across age and demographic groups,” said Michael Lange, an election analyst and Mamdani supporter who has tracked several contested races with extreme granularity. “Is she blowing him out of the water with Hispanic voters under 50? I see tons of evidence that the answer is yes.”

The age advantage was the common thread across several other races.

In Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, for example, younger Black voters in Harlem were key to Darializa Avila Chevalier’s win over Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had built a small political empire in the district.

While gentrifying, the neighborhood remains a seat of Black political power and is home to younger households who tend to rent. That particular demographic is a strong indicator of why Mamdani won the area in 2025, even as he lost the Black vote overall to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose support was concentrated among older Black homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens.

While Espaillat never healed a rift with the Black community in upper Manhattan opened during his election in 2016, which contributed to his weak performance, Avila Chevalier demonstrated Tuesday that a significant share of voters there were not just supportive of Mamdani the person, but of the broader political movement he’s now leading.

Overall, she edged out Espaillat with Black voters 48-46, according to an analysis from The New York Times, which charted demographic breakdowns for several contested races.

Three winning congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani — including former city Comptroller Brad Lander in Brooklyn, who unseated incumbent Dan Goldman — share several similarities. They won younger, college-educated and wealthier voters by huge margins, in several cases by 30 points or more, and lost lower-income voters to incumbents or candidates affiliated with incumbents — a sign that the movement seeking to boost struggling New Yorkers has not won them over.

While the DSA was able to win three state races without the support of Mamdani — a testament to the organizing prowess of the left that was essential to reactivating the mayor’s coalition — there were limits to the city’s leftward shift.

Rep. Grace Meng won her reelection race, though she only vanquished challenger Chuck Park by 14 points, an uncomfortable margin for an incumbent of her stature. Park, who ran to Meng’s left, was boosted by a huge turnout in Woodside, Queens, a multiethnic neighborhood that went heavily for Mamdani in last year’s mayoral race.

Elsewhere in the Bronx, however, incumbents remained strong. Rep. Ritchie Torres handily won reelection with 72 percent of the vote, though it was a low-turnout affair more consistent with an uncompetitive midterm. Nevertheless, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries touted the results — even as he watched a series of his endorsed candidates fall to the DSA in Brooklyn, his home borough, in a preview of the intraparty battles to come.

“In some higher-income districts, there was an outsized focus on the Middle East. In other districts, for instance, in the South Bronx, Ritchie Torres ran against somebody who was heavily critical of his position on Israel, and he won by fifty points,” Jeffries told MS NOW on Wednesday.