{"id":7898,"date":"2025-04-02T12:03:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T12:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trumps-tariff-test\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T12:03:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T12:03:50","slug":"capitol-agenda-trumps-tariff-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trumps-tariff-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Trump’s tariff test"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At least three Senate Republicans are poised to mark President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cLiberation Day\u201d escalation of his trade war by formally rebuking a key piece of his tariff strategy. Trump is fighting back.<\/p>\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski revealed Tuesday that she will vote for a resolution from Sen. Tim Kaine that would end the national emergency Trump is using to levy a blanket 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports. She joins Sen. Rand Paul, who co-sponsored Kaine\u2019s resolution, and Sen. Susan Collins, who said she is \u201cvery likely\u201d to support it when it comes up for a vote that\u2019s expected Wednesday. <\/p>\n

If the trio follows through, Vice President JD Vance will have to be on hand to break a tie to help the Senate GOP block it. Sens. Chuck Grassley \u2014 one of many farm-state Republicans concerned about the Canadian tariffs \u2014 and John Cornyn were noncommittal Tuesday about how they might vote. The measure is likely DOA in the House in any case.<\/p>\n

But Trump isn’t letting it go. In a 12:58 a.m. post<\/a>, Trump urged Murkowski, Paul, Collins and Sen. Mitch McConnell to “get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change.”<\/p>\n

“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 said.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Trump\u2019s Wednesday afternoon Rose Garden event marking his next round of tariffs, the GOP dissent on Blue Light News represents a significant political rift in the party about the sweeping economic consequences of his sometimes-unpredictable trade policies.<\/p>\n

As Blue Light News reported Tuesday<\/u><\/a>, many \u201cWall Street traders, lawmakers, industry leaders, foreign officials and even some members of the president\u2019s team see only dread\u201d ahead of Trump\u2019s big announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of that is Trump\u2019s negotiating style, to keep people he\u2019s negotiating with, other countries, off balance. But he himself has said there\u2019s going to be short term disruption, so of course people are concerned about that,\u201d said Sen. John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican who plans to vote against the resolution. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have to see if it works,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

What else we’re watching<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/i>Trump, Thune huddle on the budget: <\/b>Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Budget Republicans will meet with Trump Wednesday morning<\/u><\/a> as they try to convince fiscal hawks to back a budget blueprint that would unlock the president\u2019s sprawling legislative agenda. Senate Republican leaders are sticking with their plan to try to approve a budget this week<\/u><\/a>, even as they scramble behind the scenes to lock down the votes. Several GOP senators are withholding support and say they don\u2019t yet understand the strategy.<\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/i>Good news, bad news for Johnson<\/b>: After a day of chaos in the House, a pair of Florida special elections to replace former Reps. Mike Waltz <\/b>and Matt Gaetz <\/b>went the GOP\u2019s way \u2014 but had some warning signs for Republicans<\/a> ahead of the midterms. While Speaker Mike Johnson<\/b>\u2019s majority is intact for now, he\u2019s poised to face further fallout in the coming days over his failed attempt<\/a> to derail Rep. Anna Paulina Luna<\/b>\u2019s push to allow proxy voting for new parents.<\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/i>Crypto vote: <\/b>House Financial Services Republicans on Wednesday are set to advance landmark cryptocurrency legislation <\/u><\/a>that would create new rules for stablecoins. After that, they will have to reconcile their approach<\/u><\/a> with similar legislation moving in the Senate. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least three Senate Republicans are poised to mark President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cLiberation Day\u201d escalation of his trade war by formally rebuking a key piece of his tariff strategy. Trump is fighting back. Sen. Lisa Murkowski revealed Tuesday that she will vote for a resolution from Sen. Tim Kaine that would end the national emergency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}