By Bo Erickson and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republicans in Congress are worried that the market rout sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs is taking a heavy toll on retirees and people approaching retirement age – a critical constituency for their party.
Stocks have plummeted in the week since Trump kicked off a trade war with the U.S.’ major trading partners while Treasuries have also been hit with fresh selling pressure, weighing on the private 401(k) accounts and other investments Americans rely on to fund their retirements.
Some Republican lawmakers have expressed worry this week about the hit to Americans’ investments ahead of next year’s midterm elections, when control of both chambers of Congress will be up for grabs.
“People are going to look at their 401(k) statements. They did vote for President Trump and they voted for me. … I’m just trying to figure out if they are going to feel good about this,” said Thom Tillis of North Carolina, one of seven Senate Republicans who have signed on to a bipartisan bill that would give Congress the authority to review and override new tariffs.
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana expressed similar concern.
“It’s not fun. I don’t like it. I like it when the market goes up,” Kennedy told reporters. He said he wants to give Trump’s gambit a chance, but that the president ought to do a better job of informing the public about his short-term goals.
“We don’t know how long it’ll take (to see positive results), we don’t know what the short-term consequences will be,” Kennedy said. “We don’t know if the medicine will be worse than the disease.”
Retirees and people nearing retirement age represent a significant part of the Republican electorate. Trump’s November victory came thanks to voters age 50 and up, while his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, won voters age 18 to 49, exit polls show.
And older Americans are significantly more likely to vote than younger ones, particularly so in non-presidential years like the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
‘WATCHING THE MARKET ALL DAY’
“I talked to a retired gentleman the other day in Kentucky and he said he had been watching the market all day,” said Senator Rand Paul, an outspoken critic of the tariffs.
“Think about it. If you’re already retired and you lose 20% of your retirement income in a day, that’s an enormous hit,” the lawmaker from Kentucky said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued on Sunday that retirees have a “long-term view” of the stock market and their retirement accounts.
“Americans who want to retire right now, the Americans who put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations,” Bessent said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Tillis, who will be defending one of three Republican-held Senate seats seen as competitive next year, expressed skepticism at that idea.
“I don’t know how old Secretary Bessent is but I bet the 11,400 people who became 65 today probably checked it recently,” Tillis said in an interview.
Democrats have blasted the tariffs and their economic toll.
“Americans are looking at their 401(k)’s today and wondering how much of a lifestyle change they are going to have to have, or whether they’re going to be able to retire when they plan to because of the recklessness and haphazard nature of the Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs,” Senator Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, told U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during Senate testimony on Tuesday.
WAIT AND SEE
Given the great control Trump exerts over his party, many congressional Republicans have said they’re willing to take time to see the effects of Trump’s policies.
They include Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has signaled that he has no plan to bring up the bill lead by Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa to exert more congressional control over tariffs.
“Everybody’s concerned about the market, for sure,” Thune told reporters on Monday. “A lot of Americans, obviously, have retirement plans, mutual funds, 401(k)’s.”
The senator from South Dakota said he was willing to wait to see how the tariff moves “play out.”
Trump has compared the tariffs to “medicine,” saying that any short-term pain will be offset by long-term growth, predicting that the tariffs would drive up manufacturing employment.
Reuters/Ipsos polling shows that older Americans are receptive to that argument. Some 55% of Americans aged 55 and up agreed with the statement that “any short-term economic pain is worth it to make the U.S. stronger in the long term” in a poll concluded on Sunday. Just 40% of Americans 34 and under agreed.
“Everybody wants to know how this works out long term,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, “I think a lot of people are going to be patient if we can see the trading world getting more beneficial.”
Asked what they are hearing from constituents about their retirement accounts, Republican Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin said “not a whole lot right now,” and Republican Senator Roger Wicker from Mississippi said “very little.”
Republican Representative Roger Williams, who owns car dealerships in his home state of Texas, downplayed worries about tariffs bringing down 401(k) balances.
“I’m not afraid of them, I’m aware of them,” Williams said of the tariffs.
“I can tell you Main Street, like me and other businesses, they’re not interested in all this stuff about tariffs,” Williams said. “They want their tax cut.”
(Reporting by Bo Erickson and Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Mark Porter)
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