Four Republicans joined every Democratic senator in a resolution Wednesday to oppose President Donald Trump’s tariffs against Canada .
Senators voted 51-48 to reject the national emergency Trump declared earlier this year to justify slapping 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports.
The vote followed Trump announcement of his “Liberation Day” tariffs, a series of across-the-board levies of at least 10 percent on all nations.
Stock futures took a tumble almost immediately after Trump’s announcement. Economists fear that imposing tariffs will cause prices to spike and that it could even trigger a recession.
Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine joined Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who crafted a resolution to oppose Trump’s tariffs with Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia.
“They’re listening to their constituents,” Kaine told The Independent. “It's one thing to express a concern about terrorists, but this is a mechanism where you get to vote to stop them.”
Murkowski, who has occasionally split with Trump on policies and opposed his nominees, initially said before the announcement she was not sure what the resolution would encompass.
“Do you even know that they're going into play today,” she asked The Independent. “I don’t either. So hold on tight.”
Murkowski and Collins hail from states that border Canada, while Paul is an idiosyncratic libertarian who opposes government intervention in markets. The vote exposed a stark divide between the more devoted Trump supporters and the more pro-business Republicans who tend to favor free trade and open markets.
Collins, who faces re-election and has previously voiced concern about the effects of tariffs against Canada on Maine’s economy, said it would damage her state.
“Tariffs on imports like fertilizer will only hurt Maine potato growers,” Collins said in a floor speech. Collins also said that many Mainers have family in Canada and that this would hurt the state’s tourism industry.
“We don't want to discourage these Canadian tourists who are so vital to Maine's economy from vacationing in Maine because they are so angry at what has happened,” she said.
But McConnell, the former Senate majority leader who vacated his spot as the top Republican, delivered a more forceful denunciation of efforts to stage a full-on trade war.
“Make no mistake: goods made in America will be more expensive to manufacture and, ultimately, for consumers to purchase, with higher broad-based tariffs,” he said in a statement after his vote.
Specifically, McConnell said tariffs against Canada would hurt Kentucky’s bourbon industry, as well as its automotive and manufacturing, a direct rebuke to Trump’s claim that tariffs would return manufacturing jobs to American shores.
Trump rebuked the Republicans for being disloyal.
“Why are they allowing fentanyl to pour into our Country unchecked, and without penalty? What is wrong with them, other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
But Collins said in her floor speech that most of the fentanyl coming into the United States comes from Mexico. Canada’s former prime minister Justin Trudeau has said the country is reponsible for only 1 percent of fentanyl in the U.S.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told The Independent during a press conference ahead of the vote that Republican support revealed that they recognize the unpopularity of the tariffs.
“And once the American people say, ‘I don't want to embrace somebody, I don't want to vote for somebody I don't want to support somebody who embraces Trump's policies,’ things begin to change,” he told The Independent.
Even Republicans who opposed the resolution said that they wanted to make sure that the Trump administration would consider all of the ramifications of the tariffs.
“I'm assuming worst case scenario, the likely retaliations in the way they'll affect farm country, and in my case, specifically, North Carolina, access to markets,” Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina told The Independent.
Iowas Senator Chuck Grassley, who runs a corn and soybean farm, told The Independent he is worried about the rising cost of potash, which is used for fertilizer for crops, and said he hoped to get a waiver for potash given much of it comes from Canada.
Still, most Republicans opposed the Democratic resolution.
The House is almost guaranteed to not pick up the legislation from the Senate, given that House Speaker Mike Johnson is an ardent Trump loyalist and many House Republicans support the president’s agenda.
Last month, the House passed a rule that included language to prevent legislation from being put forward that could repeal Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico or China.
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