Many people are aware of the event at which President Donald Trump spoke then signed several new executive orders on tariffs in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, levying 10 percent on imports from across the globe and pushing back on Chinese tariff policies.
Read related: Watch: Trump Declares ‘Liberation Day in America’ in Rose Garden Tariffs EO Event
Opinion: Canadian Prime Minister Carney Responds to American Tariffs From Trump, and So It Begins
But that wasn’t the only news on tariffs that dropped on Wednesday. In the evening, four Republican senators crossed the aisle and helped Democrats to pass a resolution meant to scuttle Pres. Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canada, by a tally of 51-48:
BREAKING: Four Senate Republicans joined Democrats to pass a resolution aimed at blocking Trump’s Canadian tariffs.
The Senate voted 51-48 in favor of the Democratic resolution, with GOP Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Lisa… pic.twitter.com/AxziFnDhCV
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) April 3, 2025
via the Hill:
A group of Republican senators voted along with Democrats on Wednesday for a resolution to undo President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports…
Four Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.) — voted for the measure.
They voted to express their disapproval of Trump’s tariffs on Canada a few hours after the president announced he would impose a 10 percent tariff on all imports and levy even higher rates on imports from the European Union, China, Vietnam and Japan.
Trump blasted the GOP senators ahead of the vote via his Truth Social account. On Apr. 1, he called out the Senate bill as “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”:
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, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy. 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 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. 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? Who can want this to happen to our beautiful families, and why? To the people of the Great States of Kentucky, Alaska, and Maine, please contact these Senators and get them to FINALLY adhere to Republican Values and Ideals. 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!
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) celebrated on Thursday the passage of the bill she co-sponsored:
President Trump is igniting an unjustified trade war with Canada which is going to drive up costs for Americans and wreck our economy.
Last night, Senate Democrats and four Republicans passed my bipartisan bill with Tim Keane to reverse these tariffs.https://t.co/zgzVbpnCic
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) April 3, 2025
Three of the Republicans commented after the vote.
Collins told reporters, “In general, one of my biggest concerns is: We should be distinguishing between allies and our adversaries and not treating them the same way.”
McConnell said in a statement: “With so much at stake globally, the last thing we need is to pick fights with the very friends with whom we should be working with to protect against China’s predatory and unfair trade practices.”
Meanwhile, this was Murkowski’s rationale:
Murkowski said she did “what I needed to do for Alaska.”
She said her constituents are worried about what Trump’s tariffs “are going to mean for price increases.”
Here’s why the Senate’s move won’t matter–it’s entirely a symbolic, nonbinding resolution, which isn’t expected to get a vote in the House:
The resolution expresses the sentiment of the Senate and doesn’t have the force of law, but its 51-48 passage is unwelcome news for the president on the very day he announced a host of new tariffs.
Senate votes 51-48 to end Trump’s tariff national emergency on Canada. GOP Sens. Paul, McConnell, Murkowski and Collins supported
It won’t pass the House, which I don’t believe is even required to take it up
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) April 2, 2025
I’m seeing a lot of posts about the Senate resolution in regard to Trump’s tariffs. It’s all a lot of grandstanding. Resolutions have no force of law.
Watch all of the GOP senators that voted for the resolution try to worm their way back once the tariffs work.
— Joe Zellmer (@zellmer80718) April 3, 2025
Indeed, in a radio interview with RedState’s Joe Cunningham on NewsTalk 96.5 KPEL on Thursday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had high praise for Pres. Trump’s efforts to return balance to U.S. trade relationships:
“I mean, our country has been exploited by unfair trade practices for many, many years,” Johnson went on to say. “And we now have a president, a new commander in chief who is bold enough to call it out and to do a reset. And so his tariff policy is a big part of that.”
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