GOP senators pushing back against Trump tariffs

Trump’s tariff announcement has everyone on edge, and for good reason.

The stock market has crashed, China is making threats, and now a group of GOP senators are calling out Trump for the trade war.

Fallacy

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is one of the very few politicians I actually respect, whether I agree with his position or not.

He is generally very sensible and grounded, and he has taken a firm stance against Trump’s tariff policy.

To that point, Paul stated, “On tariffs, I think it’s just economically — it’s a fallacy to think that it’ll help the country. Tariffs are a tax, and if you tax trade or if you tax anything, you’ll get less of it.”

He later added, “We know by looking at the history of the last — at least 70 years or so in this country, that as international trade has increased, so has the prosperity of our country.”

More Senators Speak Up

As I have stated in other reports, I understand what Trump is doing, but it is a big roll of the dice, especially because of how dependent this country is on other countries for key products.

China has the hammer here, especially when it comes to medication, so I was not surprised to see other senators speak up against the tariffs, but who they were did not give me much confidence that Trump would hear them out.

Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined Paul in pushing back against the tariffs.

The moment those names showed up, I knew Paul would be in trouble, as all three of those Senators are a thorn in Trump’s side, and people he would love to see removed from office. That is a group that Paul does not want to be involved in, but now it is far too late.

Trump Goes Nuclear

Trump put a target on all of their heads with a post on Truth Social, writing, “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.”

Let me be clear… I want Trump’s plan to work, but doing it the way he did it was a huge risk, and it is our chips in the middle of the table. If the plan does not work, we are talking COVID inflation and supply chain issues on steroids. The market has already crashed on Thursday by more than 1,600 points, so Friday will be a much better sign of how things are going. If it crashes again, well, we could be in for some real pain before we get any real relief.