Sen. Paul on Trump tariffs: ‘If tyranny is wrong in blue, it’s still wrong in red’
Sen. Rand Paul’s push against tariffs backed by President Donald Trump fell just short of a major milestone Wednesday evening.
A resolution Paul co-sponsored that would have rolled back Trump’s 10% tariff on all imported goods and more failed in the Senate 49-49, with two possible supporters unable to vote.
One of those was Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has been a consistent opponent of tariffs, particularly those levied against all American trading partners, like the blanket 10% tariff.
A McConnell aide said he was at home “under the weather” Wednesday but is back in the office Thursday. They added that “a trade war is not in the best interest of American households and businesses,” and McConnell “believes that tariffs are a tax increase on everybody.”
Earlier this month, both Paul and McConnell drew the ire of Trump as “incredibly disloyal” for their stand against tariffs on goods coming from longtime U.S. ally Canada. The pair, not known for their proximity on many issues, have taken turns as the loudest Republican voices in Congress against the tariffs.
This week has been Paul’s turn.
Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden was the lead sponsor of the resolution rolling back the blanket tariffs, and Paul was among its most vocal champions.
Paul joined moderate GOP senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine in voting for the resolution alongside Senate Democrats. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, was absent, attending a conference in South Korea.
According to Axios, Senate Republican leadership worked to defeat the measure because it would have also rolled back tariffs on China. It would have terminated the national emergency declared April 2, touted as “liberation day” by the Trump administration, that led to the imposition of the tariffs.
The measure was seen as unlikely to pass in the GOP-controlled House and highly unlikely to withstand a presidential veto.
“Look, I supported President Trump. I still support President Trump on many things, but I’m not for a country run by emergencies. Even if the person were doing what I wanted and it was making every day my birthday, I would not be for that unless we deliberated upon that,” Paul said on the Senate floor.
Paul has joined Democrats in decrying the market instability and potential for price increases that have come with off-and-on tariffs during the first months of Trump’s second term. Most of his Republican colleagues have defended the tariffs as plays at reshoring manufacturing and bringing supply chains back to the U.S.
Paul’s criticism of the policy has been increasingly sharp in comments to the press and social media posts.
In one comment, Paul compared a congressional meeting with one of Trump’s trade representatives as Stalin-esque, describing his colleagues as tripping over themselves to compliment the representative and beg for tariff exemptions that would benefit their districts.
“It reminded me of a meeting on industrial policy in the Soviet Union, where you have to be nice to the czar because if you’re nice to the czar, they’ll bequeath upon you exceptions to the iron fist,” he said.
He also implied in a social media post that some of his Republican colleagues were hypocritical in their acceptance of the Trump administration’s use of emergency powers.
“We torched Biden for abusing emergency powers during COVID. Now some Republicans want to do the same thing? If tyranny is wrong in blue, it’s still wrong in red,” he wrote on X.
Paul also hinted at the possibility of a similar resolution or bill to be introduced if market conditions worsen.
“It’s still a debate worth having, because, you know, if a month from now, we have massive tariffs go on, and we have a massive sell off in the stock market, and we didn’t have a first good quarter in growth, and if it’s worse again in the second quarter, people would start asking, ‘Is it good policy, or is it a bad policy?’” Paul told reporters after Wednesday’s vote.
