President Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted that Senate Republicans must vote to block a resolution to keep him from using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose a 25% tariff on Canada over the transfer of fentanyl.
"Senator Tim Kaine, who ran against me with Crooked Hillary in 2016, is trying to halt our critical Tariffs on deadly Fentanyl coming in from Canada," Trump posted on Truth Social.
"We are making progress to end this terrible Fentanyl Crisis, but Republicans in the Senate MUST vote to keep the National Emergency in place, so we can finish the job, and end the scourge," he added.
The Senate is expected to vote on the resolution Tuesday, according to Kaine, D-Va., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
"Fortunately, the National Emergencies Act of 1976 included a provision allowing any senator to force a vote to block emergency powers being abused by the president," Kaine said in an opinion piece published last Friday in The Washington Post. "I will be pulling that procedural lever to challenge Trump's Canada tariffs early next week."
Trump blamed Democrats and "their weakness" for allowing "Fentanyl to get out of hand."
"The Republicans and I have reversed that course, strongly and quickly," Trump said. "Major additional progress is being made. Don't let the Democrats have a Victory. It would be devastating for the Republican Party and, far more importantly, for the United States."
In February, shortly after taking office, Trump declared that the threats from undocumented migration and fentanyl imports were a national emergency, which justified his call for tariffs to pressure Canada, Mexico, and China into taking action.
He has since imposed a 20% tariff on China's imports and a 25% tariff for imports from Canada and Mexico, but has paused the tariffs on goods complying with the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement's rules of origin.
The tariffs are scheduled to go into effect on Wednesday, Trump's self-proclaimed "Liberation Day," unless a deal is reached to keep them suspended.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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