The News
Democrats are going all-in against President Donald Trump’s new global tariffs, seeing a chance to keep driving a wedge in the Republican Party after four GOP senators defied Trump on his Canada tariffs.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told Semafor on Thursday that he’s drafting a plan to force a vote on nixing the national emergency Trump declared Wednesday, which would effectively scrap the across-the-board tariffs set to kick in Saturday. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., says he plans to lead a related effort to force a vote in the House.
It’s not yet clear whether Kaine and Meeks would get even equivalent support to the quartet of Republicans who backed the Virginian’s similar resolution against Canada tariffs on Wednesday night. But one senior congressional Republican is conspicuously on the record with his own tariff rebuke: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, joined Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to release a new bill that would require lawmakers to sign off on all new tariffs.
And most urgently, Democrats are plotting to force votes on tariff-related amendments to the Senate Republicans’ budget resolution as soon as Friday.
“It’s safe to say that we have a vote-a-rama coming up. And you can only imagine,” deadpanned Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev. “I think what happened yesterday might be part of the upcoming amendments.”
It’s a treacherous new front in the Trump administration’s so-far-successful push to align Republican lawmakers — typically staunch advocates of less restrictive trade — behind the president’s aggressive tariffs as the stock market tanks, business groups revolt, and other countries plot retaliation.
Democrats are hoping to build on Wednesday’s Canada vote, which attracted support from GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
“We were pleased that — for the first time since Trump was sworn in — we actually defeated some sort of policy measure that he put forward,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., told Semafor of the Kaine measure, which is unlikely to get a vote in the GOP-controlled House.
“It was sort of an important moment, and I think we will certainly be learning from that,” she added.
Kaine told Semafor his new legislation would focus on Trump’s most recent emergency declaration because existing law allows him to bypass Republican leadership to secure a vote on the Senate floor rejecting it. He used the same mechanism to advance the Canada measure Wednesday.
“My team is going through all the things that the president did yesterday to see which might be subject to the tool that I used yesterday,” Kaine said. “Any of the tariffs that were imposed pursuant to [the International Emergency Economic Powers Act] — and I think that is the basis for the 10 percent across the board — you’ll see us challenge it.”
He added that because Trump’s separate reciprocal tariffs, which take effect April 9, don’t hinge on his emergency declaration, “we have to dig in” on how to target those: “You don’t necessarily get the guaranteed vote.”
The Grassley-Cantwell proposal to let Congress review new tariffs could be even tougher to get to the floor, requiring GOP leadership’s support; still, the addition of the sponsorship of the former Senate Finance chairman is certainly notable. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said on Thursday that he supports it and wants a vote.
“We think Congress should reassert its role and have those policies come before Congress,′ Cantwell said.
Know More
Trump announced Wednesday that he would impose a 10 percent tariff on imports on all countries and even higher tariffs on imports from a select few nations, including China and the European Union.
Hours later, four Republicans joined Democratic colleagues to advance Kaine’s resolution, which would be subject to a Trump veto even if it did manage to clear the House.
Stock markets dropped precipitously Thursday in reaction to the latest round of tariffs. And Democrats are seizing on the opportunity to pick at the tension among the Republican Party’s free traders and populists.
“What he did yesterday — I want to be real clear on it — is economic poison,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told Semafor. He added that he plans to “have a longer-term effort ready to go here shortly.”
Still, Republican leaders seem intent on limiting potential defectors in the coming days. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D, a free-trader, acknowledged the swoon in the stock market but said he’s watching “how the administration reacts and what the ultimate, permanent policy might look like.” He also said he wants to give the president space.
In other words, the number of Republicans who might join with Democrats in the coming days to curb the tariffs looks to be small.
“Most people want to give [Trump] a chance. He ran on this. It’s not as if he’s springing this … this is arguably the thing he’s talked about the longest in politics, ever,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
But a few GOP senators are emerging to call for Congress to have more power over tariffs: In addition to Tillis, Murkowski told Semafor on Thursday that she’d support the Grassley-Cantwell bill.
Eleanor and Burgess’ View
As Slotkin points out, Wednesday’s win was a big deal. Four Senate Republicans willing to break from Trump, despite his best efforts to pressure them, is no small thing in 2025.
But it’s hard to see whether that vote amounts to a tipping point or even portends deeper fault lines down the road — especially given how united GOP lawmakers were on a host of issues following closed-door meetings with Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week.
As one GOP lawmaker put it, “most in the Republican Party are willing to give him a pretty long leash” right now. We’re skeptical that the president has reached the end of it.
It’s also important to keep in mind that House Republicans have so far been far less willing to step out of line than their counterparts in the upper chamber, making it highly unlikely either way that any legislation makes it off the Hill.
Of course, it’s April. If those tariffs are still around six months from now, we may be having a different discussion.
Room for Disagreement
There’s some GOP concern over the tariffs’ short-term impact for Democrats to try to amplify. But many Republicans say it’s not clear what the long-term impacts or ramifications of the tariffs will be.
“They’re all just WAGs. They’re wild-assed guesses. Nobody knows, we’re in uncharted water,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “Tariffs are more art than science. Tariffs are a little like whiskey: A little whiskey under the right circumstances will refresh you. Too much whiskey under the wrong circumstances will make you drunk as a skunk.”
Notable
- Canada is preparing to impose retaliatory tariffs against US automobiles, per The Wall Street Journal.
- The Journal also has a breakdown of how the Trump administration appears to have calculated its reciprocal tariffs by dividing countries’ trade deficit by its exports.
- CNBC reports that Restoration Hardware’s CEO used an expletive on the company’s earning call Wednesday as he watched stocks tank after Trump’s tariffs announcement.