GOP Senator asks: ‘Whose throat do I get to choke’ if Trump is wrong about tariffs

“Whose throat do I get to choke if it turns out to be wrong,” Sen. Thom Tillis asked Tuesday in a committee hearing about the Trump administration’s new trade policy.

Social media exploded.

But when asked about the reaction, Tillis was quick to tell McClatchy that he wasn’t threatening anyone.

He was using what he described as a business term from the 1990s.

And moments later, he would go to the Senate floor to set the record straight.

This all began Tuesday morning, when Tillis, 64, a Republican from Huntersville, questioned U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday morning, asking who was responsible for the new tariffs.

He said his constituents were concerned about their pocketbooks, whether their 401(k)s would be affected and whether steel, aluminum or any other product manufactured in China would be exempt from the tariffs. Greer said no to the latter.

He asked if things will stabilize for the American people by next February.

Political pundits say that that concern could hurt Republican candidates, like Tillis, during the midterms in 2026.

President Donald Trump announced a minimum 10% tariff against all U.S. trade partners last week, with rates for many countries much higher. The tariffs took effect April 2. And as China and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs, things escalated between Trump and China — and Trump plans Wednesday to issue 104% tariffs on China’s goods.

Businesses say it will hurt their bottom line.

But Trump says after two years, the United States should experience a manufacturing boom because of his plan.

In the committee hearing, Tillis said in the 1990s, he was working in business management when the Enterprise Resource Planning system came out. To implement the system, many believed it should be done at once, which he described as an “alla prima” approach. In other words: “let’s do it all at once, change the plumbing out, lets get it all in, get it done, rip the Band-aid off.”

“It proved to be hugely unsuccessful,” Tillis said.

He added that that transformed the business environment, causing a new, methodical approach.

Tillis looked at Greer in the committee hearing and said: “My first question to you is: in this scenario, the decision maker who decided the ‘alla prima’ approach, who has obviously had to spend time anticipating what we saw in the markets and some of the pushback, I’m assuming this all got gamed out because it’s a novel approach, it needed to be thought out. Whose throat do I get to choke if it turns out to be wrong?”

He would ask the latter question several times in the committee hearing, and the social media reaction zeroed in on those 14 words.

What Tillis said about the reaction

Even before the question to Greer left Tillis’ lips Tuesday morning, he characterized it as a business term.

And later Tuesday, Tillis told McClatchy no one in business would consider what he said a threat.

“That would come from somebody who’s never been in business,” Tillis told McClatchy. “Because in business, it’s a common concept: one throat to choke — people responsible for execution. You put them on a pedestal and they do well; hold them accountable when they don’t.”

“But I could see how people who’ve never been in business would characterize it differently,” he added.

In the hearing, Tillis asked who was responsible for the new trade policy — and if it fails, who would he need to hold responsible?

Greer told Tillis he could always talk to him, and that he’s at the tip of the spear, but Greer wouldn’t answer whether he proposed the “alla prima” approach, and he pushed back, saying that there are exceptions to the tariffs.

That’s when the pair got into the discussion on China.

Tillis said he was trying to wrap his head around the “alla prima approach,” adding that he’s OK with it if it had been thought through, and noted that the U.S. is now in a trade war with allies and developing countries.

“I’m not condemning it, because I’m not a trade expert, but I am at some point, and I understand that you’re the trade rep so if you own this decision, I’ll look at you to figure out if we’re going to be successful, and if you don’t own the decision, I’m just trying to figure out whose throat I get to choke, and who I put up on a platform for the novel approach if successful, if they are right.”

He added that he does not believe that blame would fall on Trump or Vice President JD Vance for the decision.

Tariff bill

Over the weekend, Tillis became one of the seven Republicans who signed onto a bill that would require new tariffs to come before Congress before being implemented. If it passes the Senate, it will likely never make it to the House floor, and Trump has promised to veto the bill.

Tillis told McClatchy implementing trade policy of this magnitude has to be well thought out.

“We weren’t consulted on the front end, and I’m OK with that,” Tillis said. “It’s a presidential prerogative, but at the end of the day, they have to deliver and failure is not an option.”

Moments later Tillis would walk onto the Senate floor to make clear his comments in the committee hearing, blaming reporters for not understanding him.

“I asked (Greer) a lot of questions and then I saw the president getting lazy,” Tillis said, before realizing what he said. “Not the president, the press. The press — getting lazy and not reporting what I said.”

Tillis asked for the record to be corrected on his verbal mistake, before continuing to correct the media.

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