Sens. Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski voted with Democrats for a resolution calling for the termination of Trump’s tariffs against Canada.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) -- Four Republican senators broke ranks to vote for a resolution calling to terminate U.S. President Donald Trump’s existing tariffs against Canada only a few hours after Trump held his tariff “Liberation Day” event.
The four Republican senators, Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted with the Democrats for the resolution, which passed in a 51-48 vote.
The resolution, should it be successful, would repeal Trump’s emergency declaration that allowed him to place tariffs on Canada, citing fentanyl crossing the border as a reason.
The emergency measure was introduced by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, however, it most likely will not survive the GOP-controlled House and almost certainly would be vetoed by Trump should it hit his desk.
Paul said about his voting for the resolution that he stands “against the idea of skipping democracy, of skipping the constitutional republic, of rejecting our founding principles, not because I have any animus towards the president.”
"This is a tax, plain and simple," he said regarding Trump’s Canada tariffs, adding, "Taxes should not be enacted by one person. So I will vote today to end the emergency."As for Trump, in a Truth Social post, he blasted the four Republicans who voted for the resolution saying, 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.”
On Wednesday, Trump spared Canada as well as Mexico from additional tariffs in his "Liberation Day" event, after he revealed a broad amount of tariffs on many nations' imports into the United States.
News of Trump's tariffs have sent the stock markets into a deep dive late Wednesday and into Thursday.
Over a month ago, Trump announced he was giving Mexico and Canada a 30-day reprieve on 25 percent export tariffs for goods covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on free trade. He has cited a lack of action on drug trafficking as the main reason for placing tariffs on Canada and Mexico in the first place.
Trump, as reported by LifeSiteNews, recently suggested he would prefer Prime Minister Mark Carney to continue as Canada’s prime minister instead of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who Trump said was “no friend” of his. Carney has used the tariff issue to rally his base, however, after Trump's Wednesday announcement that Canada would get no new tariffs, it seems this ploy may lose steam.
Poilievre has hit back at Trump, saying the reason Trump endorsed Carney was that he “knows” he would be a “tough negotiator.”
Canada will have a federal election on April 28.
