WASHINGTON — A group of Senate Republicans delivered a rare rebuke to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, helping to pass a resolution to block his tariffs on Canadian products as he escalated his broader trade war.
The Senate voted 51-48 in favor of a Democratic-led measure to revoke Trump’s Canadian tariffs. Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine; Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — joined all 47 Democrats in supporting it.
The resolution, authored by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is not expected to go anywhere in the House. Still, it represented a significant break in the party from Trump the day he announced a new set of sweeping tariffs, which the White House billed as "Liberation Day," and after the president publicly pressured the four GOP senators on the issue.
“If these tariffs go into effect, it will be so harmful," Collins said in a speech on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. "And as price hikes always do, they will hurt those the most who can afford them the least.”
Collins ticked through industry workers in Maine who would be particularly affected by a trade war, such as lobstermen, blueberry growers and potato farmers.
In Kentucky, home to a booming $9 billion bourbon industry, distillers are grappling with boycotts and retaliatory tariffs from Canada.
"Tariffs on Canada will threaten us with a recession. I mean, it's a terrible, terrible idea," Paul told reporters Wednesday.
In a lengthy statement after the vote, McConnell warned that the tariffs could have "long-term consequences right in our backyard," pointing to the nearly 70,000 Kentucky family farms that sell crops around the world or the Kentuckians who craft 95% of the world's bourbon.
"Tariffs make it more expensive to do business in America, driving up costs for producers and consumers across the board," said McConnell, the former longtime Senate Republican leader.
Republicans control the Senate, but Democrats — led by Kaine and Mark Warner, of Virginia, and Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota — were able to use a legislative procedure to force a vote to end the national emergency that Trump is using to carry out his tariffs. A simple majority was needed to pass the resolution.
“Many of my Republican colleagues in Congress have already expressed concerns about these tariffs, so the Senate’s upcoming vote on our legislation provides senators with the perfect opportunity to show Americans that they will stand up for their constituents and reverse the President’s disastrous economic policies,” Kaine said in a statement.
Trump singled out the four Senate Republicans by name Wednesday on Truth Social and urged them to reject the Canada resolution. He has argued the those specific tariffs are needed because Canada is not doing enough to halt fentanyl and other illegal drugs from coming across the northern border.
"Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change," Trump wrote.
"The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely these four, in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve it and I, as your President, will never sign it," he continued.
At a White House event Wednesday, Trump formally announced reciprocal tariffs on some of America’s largest trading partners, including key allies like Canada, Mexico and the European Union. They include a 25% tariff on all foreign-made automobiles, beginning at midnight.
“This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It’s our declaration of economic independence,” Trump said in a Rose Garden address. “For years, hard-working American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense. But now it’s our turn to prosper. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country. ... This will be, indeed, the golden age of America.”
In a letter to House and Senate Republicans this week, David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, warned about “the ongoing anticipation of a volatile economic impact caused by tariffs — including the looming ‘Liberation Day’ — April 2nd, 2025, where Trump’s tariffs will potentially hit every country.”
“What do these Executive Actions on tariffs mean for Congress? Republicans are likely to lose their majorities in the midterm elections unless immediate pro-growth action is taken,” McIntosh wrote. “That’s why it is so important now for Republicans on Capitol Hill to extend and expand Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and cut federal spending to tame core inflation.”
