Democrats on Wednesday vowed to combat President Donald Trump’s tariffs “tooth and nail” and criticized his insurance policies as having began an “absurd, loopy, chaotic commerce warfare.”
Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer held a information convention simply hours earlier than Trump’s huge tariff reveal, the place he urged Republicans to affix Senate Democrats on a measure to dam tariffs on Canadian items.
“They know they are a tax hike on the American folks,” he mentioned. “They know that the inventory market is in turmoil, risking folks’s retirements. They know that shopper confidence is down and the percentages of a recession — one thing folks hate, it is tougher to discover a job, maintain a job, keep your weekly funds if a recession happens — and now our best monetary prognosticators are saying the probabilities of recession due to these tariffs, this tariff tax, goes method up.
“So, we’ll combat these tariffs tooth and nail. Trump’s completed quite a lot of dangerous issues. That is method up there,” Schumer mentioned.
Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer speaks throughout a press convention to handle tariffs set to be imposed by President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2025.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who launched the decision to dam Trump’s tariffs on Canada, mentioned he anticipated a vote to happen between 6 p.m. and seven p.m. ET.
In contrast to most laws within the Senate, the decision will solely want a easy majority to go. Only a handful of Republicans would want to facet with Democrats to hit that vote threshold.
President Trump, in an early morning publish on his social media platform, pressured Republicans to oppose the measure — going as far as to name out some particular members of his celebration by identify.
“Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, additionally of Kentucky, will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change,” he wrote on his social media platform.
The president added the invoice “is only a ploy of the Dems to indicate and expose the weak spot of sure Republicans, specifically these 4, in that it isn’t going anyplace as a result of the Home won’t ever approve it and I, as your President, won’t ever signal it.”
Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries additionally preemptively slammed Trump’s tariffs, saying they may make items extra pricey.
“This isn’t Liberation Day. It is Recession Day in the USA of America,” Jeffries mentioned. “That is what the Trump tariffs are going to do.”
Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries speaks at his weekly press convention on the U.S. Capitol Constructing on April 02, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos
Prime Home Republicans, in the meantime, expressed confidence in President Trump forward of this Rose Backyard unveiling. Although they admitted their could also be some “short-term ache” because of this.
“I belief the president’s instincts,” Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned when requested by ABC Information if he is involved. “We’re absolutely supportive of his initiatives, and we’ll see the way it all shakes out.”
“The president talked within the State of the Union that which may be some short-term ache, finally, long run we’ll get extra issues made in America, and we’ll get honest therapy of America by different international locations,” mentioned Majority Chief Steve Scalise.
ABC Information’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
