In a moment that peeled back the polished veneer of Capitol Hill decorum, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) delivered a fiery interrogation of U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday, demanding to know exactly who would be held accountable if President Trump’s bold new “Liberation Day” tariffs tank the economy.
“Whose throat do I get to choke?” Tillis asked, deadpan but deadly serious, as part of a broader Senate Finance Committee hearing on the Trump administration’s escalating trade war strategy. That question wasn’t a throwaway line—it was a clarion call for accountability in an administration that’s swinging hammers and smashing trade norms with zero interest in bureaucratic red tape.
.@SenThomTillis on tariff strategy: "Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?"@USTradeRep Jamieson Greer: "Well, Senator, you can certainly always talk to me...I'm at the tip of the spear...I would push back just a little bit on this." pic.twitter.com/fFRo7HTbNI
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 8, 2025
Tillis, with a background in management consulting, referenced the “one throat to choke” principle—an old-school mantra of project accountability that ensures someone answers when plans go sideways. And while he emphasized he wasn’t condemning the tariff-heavy strategy just yet, he didn’t hide his skepticism. Not one bit.
Greer, caught under the heat lamp, tried to steady the ship, replying, “Senator, you can certainly always talk to me.” But Tillis wasn’t playing pattycake. He pressed again: “But are you at the tip of the spear?” To which Greer affirmed, “I’m at the tip of the spear, certainly.”
That exchange revealed something deeper. Beneath the politeness of committee hearings is a GOP starting to grapple with the very real possibility that Trump’s economic brinkmanship could backfire—and in a hurry. The “Liberation Day” tariffs are a massive play, with baseline 10% duties on a laundry list of imports and threats of up to 50% for countries like China if they don’t comply.
That’s not a playbook—it’s a battering ram.
Tillis didn’t stop there. He pointed out that retirees watching their 401(k)s shrink don’t care about macroeconomic theory or twelve-dimensional chess with Beijing. They care about results, and they care about them fast. “A long-term play in American policy is about 12 months,” he warned, noting that voters aren’t buying multi-decade promises—they’re looking at their portfolios and their paychecks today.
And while Tillis said he wasn’t a trade expert, his message was clear: if this blows up, somebody’s going to wear it. And if it works? Fine—he’ll thank them. But Washington better stop hiding behind the word “strategy” when it really means playing chicken with people’s livelihoods.