Senate Republicans are bracing for the passage of a bipartisan bill to undo President Trump’s 25-percent tariff against Canada, which would deal Trump an embarrassing setback on “Liberation Day,” an occasion the president has proclaimed to announce a new round of tariffs.

Four Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.) — have indicated publicly or privately that they would vote for the resolution, according to Senate Democrats.

Paul, who is a co-sponsor of the measure, said Trump’s tariff war against Canada is bad for the economy and an end-run around Congress, which he says has sole constitutional authority to raise taxes.

“Trade is a good thing. Trade is proportional to prosperity, and so tariffs are bad economically,” he said. “It’s a terrible idea to run a country by emergency where representatives to vote on raising or lowering taxes.”

Paul said tariffs “are bad for the country, bad for prosperity, bad for the economy.”

“Our Constitution was very specific that taxes — tariffs are a tax — taxes originate in the House, come to the Senate and then go the president,” he said. “They don’t just go to the president and no one else. What kind of system would it be if all of our taxes and laws were passed by one person?”

Trump, citing the threat of fentanyl coming across the northern border, has invoked his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to levy a 25-percent tariff on Canada.

Collins said that tariff has a variety of negative economic consequences for Maine.

“The Maine economy is integrated with Canada, our most important trading partner,” she said on the Senate floor.

“From home heating oil, gasoline, jet fuel, and other refined petroleum products, to Maine’s paper mills, forest products businesses, agricultural producers, and lobstermen, the tariffs on Canada would be detrimental to many Maine families and our local economies,” she warned.

McConnell declared at a press conference last month, “I’m not a fan of tariffs,” pointing out that Canada has already pulled Kentucky-made bourbon off store shelves.

“American farmers, we have 70,000 farmers in Kentucky, basically make their money off of trade, export. So I think a long-term trade war would be a mistake,” he said.  

If all Democrats vote for the resolution, as expected, with the four Republicans, then the bill would have enough votes to pass the Senate, where Republicans control a 53-47 seat majority.

The resolution doesn’t have the force of law and won’t get a vote in the House, but it is a powerful expression of opposition to Trump’s trade war against Canada.

“I think we’re going to have Democratic unity on this,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.), the lead Democratic sponsor of the resolution.

“I feel good,” Kaine said, floating the possibility that more than four Senate Republicans could vote for the measure.

The Virginia senator said he expected the Senate to vote on the measure between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Passage of the resolution would be a setback to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who has urged Republican colleagues to vote “no.”

Thune was expected to lay out the case for defeating the anti-tariff resolution on the Senate floor.

“If we’re serious about ending the fentanyl crisis in America, we need to address the entirety of the crisis. We’re not going to solve the problem by going after just part of it,” Thune was expected to say, according prepared remarks first reported by The Daily Caller.

“Ending this emergency declaration would tell the cartels that they should shift their focus to the northern border,” Thune will say, according to his prepared remarks. “I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution and ensure that President Trump has the tools he needs to combat the flow of fentanyl from all directions.”

Thune had not yet spoken on the floor as of 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso (Wyo.) argued that Trump’s tariff policy is designed to secure the U.S.-Canadian border and argued that Democrats are trying to “undermine” Trump.

“I’m opposed to what Kaine is proposing on the floor. To me, this … again proves that Democrats are the party of open borders. When you take a look at how many people on the terrorist watch list have been caught since October coming into this country from Canada, it’s well over 100,” he said. “Many of those related bring in fentanyl. … The drug cartels are moving product through Canada into the United States.

“What I see Sen. Kaine doing is just trying to undermine President Trump message-wise,” he said.

He noted that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has already said he’s never bringing the resolution to the House floor.

Trump targeted the four likely Republican “yes” votes in a post on Truth Social.

“Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, 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 posted.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to the Senate GOP leadership team, said the resolution isn’t going anywhere, even if it passes the Senate. He said it won’t come up for a vote in the House and won’t reach Trump’s desk.