WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans threatened Tuesday to block the White House’s planned tariffs on Mexico, hours after President Donald Trump signaled he was prepared to move ahead with the levies barring a last-minute deal over border security.
Trump, frustrated with the flow of asylum-seeking Central American families at the southern U.S. border, last week said the U.S. would impose escalating tariffs on all Mexican imports starting on June 10 unless Mexico took sufficient steps to stop migration. U.S. and Mexican negotiators are meeting this week in Washington to try to fashion a deal and head off a trade fight between close trading partners.
“We are going to see if we can do something, but I think it’s more likely that the tariffs go on,” Trump said Tuesday at a press conference in London alongside U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May. Asked what he thought of potential Republican efforts to block his Mexico tariffs, he responded: “I don’t think they will do that — if they do, it’s foolish.”
Democrats have roundly opposed Trump’s border stance and his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico, which are set to start at a 5% rate and ratchet up to 25% by October. His plan has also triggered blowback from many Senate Republicans, who returned this week from a Memorial Day recess ready to consider their options to stop him, citing executive overreach and possible economic pain for U.S. consumers and businesses. “There is not much support in my conference for tariffs,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters, while declining to address whether the Senate could hold a vote to oppose the president.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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