WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is crashing the global economy with arbitrary tariffs against countries around the world, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Congress could stop the tariffs at any time.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to control tariffs, but lawmakers have over the decades ceded their power to the White House with laws expanding the president’s trade powers, including authorities to impose duties in cases of emergency.

Trump has claimed fentanyl and international trade itself are emergencies to justify taxes of 10% or higher not just on every U.S. trading partner but on friendly neighbors like Canada and even on uninhabited islands home to only seals or penguins.

Already, members of Congress have introduced legislation to roll back the president’s tariff power. But Republican leaders have given no indication they will allow the bills to become law, as they work instead on passing trillions of dollars in tax cuts.

Still, several rank-and-file Republicans have refused to go along with Trump’s crazed napkin-math trade agenda that assumes the U.S. has been “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered” by any country where the value of its exports exceeds its imports from the U.S.

In the Senate, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Chuck Grassley of Iowa last week introduced legislation to reassert Congress’ role over trade policy. That bill has the support of seven GOP co-sponsors, enough to overcome a filibuster. It’s unclear whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) will ever bring it up for a vote since that would almost certainly anger Trump.

“I am a Republican. I am a supporter of Donald Trump. But this is a bipartisan problem,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) explained in a Senate floor speech last week. “I don’t care if the president is a Republican or a Democrat. I don’t want to live under emergency rule. I don’t want to live where my representatives cannot speak for me and have a check and balance on power.”

And in the House, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said Sunday he would introduce a companion bill and that the legislation could become viable if the stock market keeps tanking for several weeks.

“It’s time that Congress restores its authorities here,” Bacon said on “Face the Nation.” “And the Constitution is clear, the House and the Senate, Congress has the power of tariffs and taxes. And we gave some of that power to [the] executive branch. And I think, in hindsight, that was a mistake.”

GOP leaders snuck a provision into last month’s government funding bill disallowing a privileged vote in the House on a measure overturning the tariffs, so lawmakers would need to force one via a so-called discharge petition, another obstacle to getting a bill to Trump’s desk.

Even if Congress passes a bill overturning the tariffs, Trump could veto it. Congress would then need to override a veto with a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate.

There’s no indication yet that nervous Republicans will bail on Trump’s tariff regime, but that could change if financial markets continue melting down. Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, a top Trump ally, warned Sunday that the world is on the precipice of “self-induced, economic nuclear winter” and urged the president to take a 90-day “time out” with his tariffs.

“What CEO and what board of directors will be comfortable making large, long-term, economic commitments in our country in the middle of an economic nuclear war?” he asked in a post on social media.

But Trump has refused to back down, defending his policies.

“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something — and we have been treated so badly by other countries,” Trump told reporters on Sunday after a weekend of golfing at his Florida estate.

“Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!),” he added in a social media post on Monday. “Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”