President Donald Trump is stepping up the public pressure on a handful of GOP senators to join with Senate Republican leadership in rejecting a Democrat-backed push to block the national emergency declaration underpinning the Canada tariffs.
At least three Senate Republicans — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — have publicly suggested they will support the resolution sponsored by Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine to terminate the emergency powers Trump is relying upon to impose tariffs on Canadian imports. The president and Senate GOP leaders have argued that the Canada tariffs are critical to the administration’s efforts in curbing the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigration into the country from across the northern border.
Trump accused the three senators and former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of “playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels” in a post on Truth Social Wednesday after midnight.
McConnell, who has been tight-lipped about how he will vote on the resolution, has been a frequent critic of Trump’s trade policy, citing the potential for inflated prices as a result of the tariffs. The former Senate Republican leader notably supported giving China special trade relations in 2000. McConnell has also voted in favor of major free trade agreements, including NAFTA, which Trump has frequently argued hurt middle-class Americans by pushing manufacturing jobs overseas.
Kaine told reporters Wednesday that McConnell privately told him he will vote with Senate Democrats to block the president’s national emergency declaration underpinning the Canada tariffs.
Trump has promised to veto the resolution in the unlikely scenario the national emergency declaration termination measure were to land on his desk. House GOP leadership has said it will not take up the resolution.
Senate GOP leadership is arguing that Trump’s national emergency declaration is critical to addressing fentanyl and illegal migrants coming into the United States from Canada.
“The northern border is now a hotspot for terror suspects and drug cartels,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “One hundred forty-three terror suspects were already caught this year at our northern border by Border Patrol agents. That is a threat to the safety of our communities.”
“President Trump is taking bold, swift action to secure it,” Barrasso added. “President Trump’s actions are working. Why would we let up?”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune echoed a similar message Tuesday, arguing that blocking the emergency declaration justifying the Canada tariffs would hurt the administration’s fentanyl crackdown efforts.
“The president declared the emergency to deal with the issue of fentanyl and the flow of fentanyl into this country not only from our southern border, but also from our northern border,” Thune said at the GOP leadership press conference Tuesday. “That’s what this emergency declaration is about … I think the president needs to have the tools at his disposal to deal with what I think are national emergencies.”
“The tens of thousands of people that are killed every year in this country because of fentanyl represents that, so I hope we’ll have the votes to defeat it,” Thune continued.
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) seized an unprecedented amount of fentanyl — nearly 50,000 pounds — coming into the United States over the last two fiscal years, according to CBP data released in February.
The White House cited a recent study that allegedly “recognized Canada’s heightened domestic production of fentanyl, and its growing footprint within international narcotics distribution,” in the national emergency declaration fact sheet.
Collins told reporters Tuesday she would join with Senate Democrats to terminate the president’s national emergency declaration, citing in part her view that the tariffs would be “disastrous” for Maine’s economy. She also suggested the northern border’s fentanyl problem pales in comparison to the one at the southern border.
“Only an estimated 1% of fentanyl comes in through the northern border,” Collins told reporters Wednesday. The problem’s the southern border.”
“Canada is our friend and our ally,” Collins added. “This is not China we’re talking about. It’s not an adversarial nation. It’s our biggest trading partner. This just makes no sense.”
Paul has justified his opposition to Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose the Canada tariffs, arguing that tariffs should be voted on in a normal fashion by Congress.
“I think it’s one of the more important votes we will have, maybe, in a generation,” Paul told reporters Tuesday.
Trump conversely slammed the GOP senators planning to back the Kaine resolution for “allowing fentanyl to pour into our country unchecked, and without penalty” in the Truth Social post.
“What is wrong with them, other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS?” the president questioned.
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
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