President Donald Trump asked the Senate to maintain the United States tariffs on Canada in his place, hours before Democrats in the upper chamber could force a vote aimed at blocking the president to impose rates in the ally.
The sens. Democratic Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner are leading the effort to end the international emergency, which Kaine has called an “invented emergency”, which Trump has declared against Canada, thus avoiding the authority of his administration to unilaterally impose tariffs. Trump has resulted in his authority to impose tariffs by declaring a national emergency caused by the flow of fentanyl and undocumented migration of Canada, Mexico and China. But Democrats are now challenging that state of emergency.
“President Trump says there is an emergency with Canada. Canada is a friend, not an adversary. Canada is a sovereign nation, not a state 51,” Kaine said Tuesday.
It occurs only one day before Trump’s tariffs in Canada are expected to enter into force as part of the “Liberation Day”: the president’s plans to implement radical tariffs that he has said that they will affect “all countries.”
President Donald Trump talks about the press aboard Air Force One before arriving at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 28, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to respond with retaliation tariffs if Trump slapped the additional encumbrances about Canadian goods as part of the expected fees announcement on Wednesday.
Trump said in a publication on social networks that the United States is “progressing to finish this terrible fentanyl crisis” that he says that it comes from Canada, and said that “Republicans in the Senate must vote to maintain the national emergency in place, so that we can finish the job and finish the scourge.”
Senator Tim Kaine talks to the workers of the Consumer Financial Protection Office (CFPB) to whom they have been dismissed or who have put themselves in work orders in their office in Capitol Hill on March 7, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
During a press conference on Tuesday, the Democrats argued that Trump is falsely imposing an emergency to cover tariffs hoping to increase income to pay their tax cut plan. That is why they say that this vote is so important.
Trump criticized Kaine for his role in the effort to block tariffs.
“Do not let the Democrats have a victory. It would be devastating for the Republican Party and, more importantly, for the United States,” Trump wrote.
Unlike most legislation in the Senate, this resolution will only need a simple majority of votes to approve, and can most likely. Only a handful of Republicans would be needed to reach that threshold.
But there is nothing that forces the Chamber, controlled by the Republicans, to assume the legislation, and it is almost certain that the president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, would remain away from the resolution.
The vote of the Senate could be driven until Wednesday while Senator Cory Booker continues a filibuster who began at 7 pm Monday night. Booker is protesting the national “crisis”, said Trump and Elon Musk created.
Several Republicans have expressed skepticism about Canadian tariffs and are now in a difficult place to have to choose whether to block Trump’s authority or cast a vote to try to prevent rates.
The leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, talks to the press after the meeting of Republican Weekly Policies in the United States Capitol in Washington, on March 4, 2025.
Allison Robbert/AFP through Getty Images
The majority leader, John Thune, said Monday that he is not sure if they can overcome the resolution.
“We’ll see,” he said. “Obviously, as you know, and I am among these, there is a concern for tariffs in Canada and, you know, what is the final objective. If it is fentanyl and stop drug trafficking, the war on drugs, that is a problem obviously that there is a lot of interest. Obviously, we want to give the president as possible with specific problems like that The one that is a task, and in which it is Canada.
Senator Tim Kaine talks to the workers of the Consumer Financial Protection Office (CFPB) to whom they have been dismissed or who have put themselves in work orders in their office in Capitol Hill on March 7, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Thune said Tuesday that he expects “to have the votes.”
“The president declared that the emergency deals with the issue of fentanyl: Fentanyl flow in this country, not only from our southern border, but also our north. That is what the emergency declaration is about. And what this would do is undo that,” he said. “I think the president needs to have tools at his disposal to deal with what I think they are national emergencies. And certainly, you know, the tens of thousands of people who die in this country every year, because the fentanyl represents it. So I hope we have the votes.”