U.S. President Donald Trump’s unprecedented move to drag America’s closest neighbours right into a trade war has left some Republican lawmakers precariously navigating the best way to support the leader’s tariff agenda while their local economies brace for impact.
Many Republicans — caught between risking the president’s ire and facing backlash from constituents concerned about rising costs — remained quiet in regards to the damaging duties, set to be deployed Tuesday. Other got here out loudly in support.
“Canada needs to return to the table,” Kristi Noem, the previous governor of South Dakota and the brand new head of the Department of Homeland Security, told NBC News on Sunday.
“They should work with us to be certain that not only can we be good neighbours, but that we may help one another’s economies by getting in line.”
Trump signed executive orders Saturday to hit imports from Canada and Mexico with damaging duties amounting to 10 per cent on Canadian energy and 25 per cent on all the pieces else.
Canada and Mexico quickly announced their intention to keep off — despite the indisputable fact that the order features a retaliation clause that claims if the countries respond with duties on American products, the levies could possibly be increased.
The president has linked the tariffs to what he calls the illegal flow of individuals and fentanyl across the border. U.S Customs and Border Protection statistics show lower than one per cent of all fentanyl seized within the U.S. comes from the northern border.
Trump expanded an earlier emergency declaration on the southern border to the north and issued the tariffs through the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA). No president has used IEEPA for tariffs and it stays to be seen if the order will survive legal challenges.
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The chief order states Noem will tell the president if Canada has done enough to alleviate the “public health crisis through cooperative enforcement actions” to lift the tariffs. It doesn’t say what measures would suffice.
Many experts say it’s more likely the levies are a part of Trump’s plan to fill federal coffers through an intensive tariff agenda, while also rattling Canada and Mexico ahead of a compulsory review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement.
Canadian ministers had been cycling through Washington in recent weeks, meeting with Republican lawmakers and members of Trump’s team in a last-ditch effort to stop the duties. Ministers met Friday with Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, to debate Canada’s $1.3 billion border security plan, implemented to appease the president’s concerns.
During an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Homan said he hadn’t shared the small print of that presentation with the president and didn’t weigh in on whether it is perhaps enough to lift the tariffs.
“I’ll temporary him on the meeting I had, but that’s the president’s decision,” Homan said. “I don’t wish to get ahead of him on that, but I’ll temporary him on what I heard… so he knows what they’ve done, what they said they’ll do.”
Republicans in support of the president’s tariff prerogative repeated the president’s border security claims, despite widespread concerns that the duties will stoke inflation and lift costs for Americans.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be “careful” about imposing retaliatory tariffs.
“The Texas economy is larger than Canada’s. And we’re not afraid to make use of it,” Abbott posted on social media Saturday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson praised Trump’s tariffs on social media, despite saying last week he didn’t think the duties would occur.
Many are in search of one other key figure to weigh in. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said repeatedly he has not supported across-the-board tariffs and has warned they result in higher inflation. The South Dakota Republican’s state could possibly be hammered by tariffs.
South Dakota’s largest market is Canada, representing 44 per cent of total exported goods from the agriculture state. It also imports USD $686 million in goods from Canada annually, including fertilizer and machinery. Mexico is the state’s second largest market.
While many Republicans remained mum, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was among the many exceptions. He posted on social media that “tariffs are simply taxes.”
“Conservatives once united against latest taxes. Taxing trade will mean less trade and better prices,” Paul said.
Don Bacon, a Nebraska congressman, was careful to not criticize the president while expressing confusion over why Canada was being dragged right into a trade war. On CNN Saturday, Bacon said Trump likes to make use of tariffs as a tool for negotiating trade deals.
“With Canada we have already got a trade agreement and it was a superb trade agreement.,” Bacon said. “And in order that’s hard for me to square that circle because we’ve already negotiated a cope with them on this.”
He suggested that Trump give attention to China and Russia, adding “they’re our adversaries and China does do illegal trade practices.”
Democrats widely condemned Trump’s tariffs, criticizing the president for campaigning on affordability while taking actions more likely to raise costs.
“You’re frightened about grocery prices. Don’s raising prices along with his tariffs,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on social media.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
