President Donald Trump tore into four GOP senators in a late-night social media rant on Wednesday, accusing them of being disloyal for siding with Democrats in opposing his attempt to slap tariffs on imports from Canada.
The president took to Truth Social to single out Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, accusing them of “playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels.”
Trump was responding after Senate Democrats advanced a resolution introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia that would block the import levies on America’s neighbor and key trading ally. It would terminate the national emergency the president declared in February, citing illegal immigration and ongoing shipments to the U.S. of ingredients used to produce fentanyl, the deadly opioid fueling the U.S. drug crisis.
The president has faced criticism for his back-and-forth on tariffs which have rattled stock markets and fueled uncertainty for businesses and consumers.
Last month, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada. Following a drop in the stock market, on March 6, he postponed tariffs until April 2 on products from the two countries that are covered by the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement.
“Canada is a friend not an adversary,” Kaine said of the resolution. “Canada is a sovereign nation not a 51st state.”
A number of Republicans have said they plan to vote in favor of Kaine’s resolution, which would require a simple majority of votes to pass.
Collins on Monday night said imposing levies on imports from Canada was a “huge mistake” that would result in the major “disruption in the economies of both countries.” Paul has co-sponsored the resolution.
McConnell, Paul, Collins, and Murkowski “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,” Trump wrote.
“What is wrong with them, other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS?” the president went on.
“To the people of the Great States of Kentucky, Alaska, and Maine, please contact these Senators and get them to FINALLY adhere to Republican Values and Ideals,” Trump ranted. “They have been extremely difficult to deal with and, unbelievably disloyal to hardworking Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Party itself. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump framed the resolution as “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.”
A vote is expected in the Senate on Wednesday. The president said he “will never sign it” if it were to reach his desk.
