The Senate passed a resolution on Wednesday aiming to block President Trump from imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.
The measure cleared the upper chamber in a 51-48 vote, with a handful of Republicans joining all Democrats in support of the resolution, which seeks to terminate the national emergency on fentanyl smuggling that Trump declared in February and is using to impose sweeping levies on imports from north of the border.
Republican Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted in favor of passing the measure.
The resolution is largely symbolic as Trump has already indicated that he “will never sign it.”
The measure is also likely to face stiff opposition in the GOP-controlled House. Paul, a co-sponsor of the bill, has said House members will “refuse” to bring it up for a vote through “trickery and chicanery.”
“Symbolic or not, I think it’s an incredibly important argument,” Paul told Fox News “Special Report” host Bret Baier ahead of the vote. “Can the president raise taxes without the approval of Congress?”
“Tariffs are taxes,” the Kentucky Republican argued.
“There’s two arguments,” Paul continued. “One is the constitutional argument, but the second argument is an economic argument – tariffs are just bad.”
Democratic co-sponsor, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, joined Paul on “Special Report” and added: “We don’t like government by executive emergency declaration.”
Kaine argued that even if the tariffs are part of a larger Trump strategy to bring down levies against US products worldwide, the president shouldn’t be imposing tariffs to accomplish that.
“If it was just a negotiation, the president has an avenue to negotiate,” the Virginia Democrat argued. “He negotiated the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement … President Trump can claim credit for that. He got nearly 90 votes for it in the Senate in his first term.”
“He should use the tools that he created to find a resolution for any disputes that are legitimate, but for some reason, he’s bypassing that.”
The Senate vote came on the same day Trump announced new “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of nations, including key allies such as European Union members, Japan and Israel.
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who opposed the resolution, noted on the Senate floor that the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs “did not get applied to Canada.”
“What we’re talking about here today, however, in Sen. Kaine’s resolution, is not about our trading relationship,” Crapo said, arguing that the vote was on “whether an emergency exists” related to fentanyl, which he adamantly believes does exist.
Trump slammed Republicans supporting the resolution in a 1 a.m. Truth Social post Wednesday, arguing that “They are playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels.”
“The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely [Paul, McConnell, Collins and Murkowski], in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve it and I, as your President, will never sign it,” the president added.
“What is wrong with them, other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS?” he mused. “They have been extremely difficult to deal with and, unbelievably disloyal to hardworking Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Party itself. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
