Senate votes to revoke Canada tariffs as a handful of Republicans take a stand against Trump

A resolution to block Donald Trump’s tariffs on products from Canada was passed in the senate yesterday after a group of Republicans joined forces with Democrats to vote in favor of the new measure.

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NBC News reports that the votes came to 51-48 in favor of the measure with all 47 Democrats supporting it along with a small handful of Republicans. Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Lis Murkowski (Alaska) defied Donald Trump and the rest of his party to vote in favor of the Democrat-led resolution.

What does this mean?

Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean Donald Trump’s current tariffs on America’s neighbour will instantly be blocked. The resolution has to pass through the House of Representatives now that it’s gone through the Senate. From there it would go to the president himself, although it’s highly unlikely that it will even make it through the House. Trump’s Canada tariffs and the rest of them will be going ahead despite the inevitable economic turmoil it’s going to put American citizens through.

This is still a small win

Although it’s disheartening to know that blocking Trump’s insane tariff policy is unlikely right now it’s still encouraging to see members of the president’s own party take a stand against him. Could this be the beginning of larger fractures between Republicans? Perhaps we’re witnessing the first few cracks as people finally begin to see sense and stop blindly following the madman at the top.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Collins stated that the tariffs will be harmful, likely resulting in the cost of items going up, “as price hikes always do, they will hurt those the most who can afford them the least.” Meanwhile, Paul told reporters, “Tariffs on Canada will threaten us with a recession. I mean, it’s a terrible, terrible idea.”

McConnell also made a statement in which he warned, “Tariffs make it more expensive to do business in America.” If they can all see it, why can’t Trump and his MAGA minions?

Trump called out the Republicans directly

Prior to the vote Donald Trump took to Truth Social to single out the four Republicans encouraging them to fall in line and reject the bill.

“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.”

He went on to say that the bill was a “ploy” from Democrats to “expose the weakness of certain Republicans,” before warning that the bill would never make it through the House and even if it did he would “never sign it.”

Despite the apparent hopelessness of the situation, it seems that the actions of these four have somewhat gotten under Donald Trump’s skin. The president’s “Liberation Day” as he called it has already led to economic chaos as countries around the globe look to retaliate and potentially ignite a full on trade war.