Rand Paul Trying to Rally GOP Opposition to Trump's Tariffs

Yahoo

18-03-2025

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) walks in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on Nov. 13, 2024. Credit - Kevin Dietsch—Getty Images
Senate Republicans had gathered for one of their regular private lunches last Wednesday when Rand Paul commanded their attention. As Senators sipped diet sodas and grazed on sandwiches, the Kentucky lawmaker went through a slide deck with charts and statistics in service of a bold proposal: come out against President Trump's tariffs.
The arguments in Paul's presentation, which has not been previously reported, were not a surprise to his audience. One of the most prominent libertarians on Capitol Hill, he's a fierce proponent of free trade. But his attempt to corral colleagues against the Trump trade agenda was seen as a provocation to the President's close allies. 'The public feels like free trade has sold us out,' Paul said, according to two Senators who were present, 'but Americans are richer because of it.' Claiming that free trade agreements have spurred upward social mobility, one of his slides asserted that the middle class has shrunk in recent years only because more people had moved into the upper class.
'Basically, he was saying that everyone was getting richer during Joe Biden's presidency,' one Senator tells TIME.
For some in the room, Paul's rebellion reflected their deep unease over Trump's protectionism, which has rattled stock markets, shaken consumer confidence, and strained America's relationships with its allies. Economists now fear the U.S. is heading into a recession. But for many others, it was heresy. Tariffs are not only a Trumpian fixation, they were one of his core campaign pledges and a bedrock of his plan to reshore manufacturing jobs back to the United States. To that end, Paul was asking them to undermine the President, a political suicide mission given Trump's grip over the GOP base.
Among Congressional Republicans, Paul has been more recalcitrant than most. He refused to endorse Trump in the 2024 election. He was the only GOP Senator to vote against the Trump-backed government funding bill last week. While tariffs are anathema to plenty of Republicans who preach the gospel of unfettered markets, Paul is one of the only members of Congress currently speaking out against them. 'When the markets tumble like this, it pays to listen,' he recently wrote on social media. Behind the scenes, he's been even more aggressive, courting members of Congress to join his renegade mission.
This makes Paul an anomaly. At a time when most elected Republicans are either America First true-believers or traditional conservatives who bent the knee, Paul has emerged as a thorn in Trump's side. 'They have very different ideologies,' says Whit Ayres, a veteran GOP strategist. 'Rand Paul is a libertarian and Donald Trump is a populist, and they have very different views about appropriate policies given those two different ideologies.'
Paul isn't the only Republican to push back on Trump. His fellow Kentuckian Mitch McConnell has voted against some of the President's cabinet picks, such as Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. But it's easier for McConnell than the rest; he's retiring at the end of this term. Other GOP Senators who have dipped their toes in the opposition have eventually acquiesced under pressure. Sen. Joni Ernst and Sen. Tom Tillis each expressed reservations about Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary. But after an onslaught of social media harassment and abuse—combined with the threat of a Trump-endorsed, Elon Musk-funded primary challenger—they both voted to send Hegseth to the Pentagon.
In some ways, Paul has been less obstreperous than them. He voted to confirm nearly all of Trump's cabinet nominees and rhetorically sought to smooth the waters last month. 'A few people may have noticed that I resisted an enthusiastic endorsement of Donald Trump during the election,' Paul wrote on X. 'But now, I'm amazed by the Trump cabinet (many of whom I would have picked). I love his message to the Ukrainian warmongers, and along with his DOGE initiative shows I was wrong to withhold my endorsement.' The detente didn't last long. He has since become a vigorous antagonist of Trump's stiff tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, which the President insists will galvanize an American industrial renaissance.
Paul's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump and Paul have a history of acrimony. When they each sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, Trump opened one of the first debates by ridiculing his rival. 'Rand Paul shouldn't even be on this stage,' he said. 'He's got one percent in the polls and how he got up here—there's far too many people up here anyway.' Paul dropped out five months later.
The two also have ideological disagreements. Paul is an intellectual disciple of the so-called Chicago School of Economics, most associated with Milton Friedman, which argues for laissez-faire economic policy. Trump, for his part, has ushered in a wave of national populism, with protectionist policies as a pillar of his economic agenda. He has called tariffs 'the most beautiful word in the dictionary.'
Tariffs may not be as beloved by all Republicans, but Trump has cobbled a right-wing coalition together by tethering his trade posture to a classic business-friendly program of cutting taxes and regulations. The mass movement he leads has also effectively captured the GOP, which operates in service to him. In the other Capitol chamber, House Republicans recently relinquished their own authority when it comes to trade, voting earlier this month to block their ability to challenge levies imposed by the President.
The Trump Administration's trade war could hit Paul's constituents hard. After Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the United States, EU nations threatened last week to slap a 50% tariff on American whiskey, putting Kentucky bourbon in the crosshairs of a global trade war. (Trump struck back hours later by threatening a 200% tariff on European alcohol.)
While Paul has little influence on the President, he does have a connection in the White House. One of Trump's top policy advisers, Sergio Gor, used to be a spokesman in Paul's Senate office. Sources close to Trump expect Gor to serve as an intermediary if Paul's vote becomes crucial to securing an extension of the 2017 tax cuts. Paul, along with a handful of other Senators, have expressed doubts about adding to the national debt.
Paul's misgivings haven't yet resulted in an impasse. But with Republicans holding a slim 53-seat Senate majority, that remains a future possibility. And if the tax bill creates a confrontation between the two, it may not be the last. By resisting parts of the Trump agenda, Paul may be setting himself on a collision course for 2028, when he's up for reelection. 'The thing about Trump,' says a senior GOP Senate aide. 'He has a very long memory.'
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