Sen. Chuck Grassley was grilled over the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and President Trump’s tariffs at a contentious Iowa town hall.
“Do your job, senator,” one audience member told Grassley.
“Trump’s not obeying the Supreme Court,” another constituent chimed in.
The 91-year-old Republican lawmaker told scores of angry constituents Tuesday in the town of Fort Madison that there is little Congress can do to get Garcia back from El Salvador, despite a Supreme Court ruling to “facilitate” his return and release from a notorious megaprison in his homeland.
“El Salvador is an independent country,” Grassley responded. “The president of that country is not subject to our U.S. Supreme Court.”
Grassley dodged a question about whether he was “proud” of Trump. “There’s no president I have agreed with 100% of the time,” he said.
He was non-committal when asked about Trump’s plan for massive new tariffs on imports from China and a 10% tax on virtually all foreign-made products. He noted that a trade war will likely result in retaliatory tariffs on American agricultural exports like corn, which is the backbone of Iowa’s economy.
“When you put something negative like a tariff on some country, they seem to retaliate against agricultural issues,” Grassley said.
The oldest member of Congress is one of a handful of Republicans who is going ahead with in-person town halls after the party’s campaign leaders advised them to avoid being confronted by angry constituents.
Several previous town halls gave a platform to politically damaging attacks on GOP lawmakers over Trump’s policies and especially the harsh cuts in government agencies engineered by billionaire first buddy Elon Musk.
Even critics of Grassley praised him for having the courage to appear at the meeting, part of his tour of all 99 Iowa counties.
There was no law enforcement involvement at the meeting, in contrast to the stormy town hall held Tuesday night by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) in which police used tasers to subdue and remove two hecklers.
