Senate rebukes Trump’s tariffs as some Republicans vote to halt taxes on Canadian imports

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a resolution Wednesday night that would thwart President Donald Trump’s ability to impose tariffs on Canada, delivering a rare rebuke to the president just hours after he unveiled sweeping plans to clamp down on international trade.

The Senate resolution, passed by a 51-48 vote tally with four Republicans and all Democrats in support, would end Trump’s emergency declaration on fentanyl trafficking that underpins tariffs on Canada. Trump earlier Wednesday announced orders — his so-called “Liberation Day” — to impose import taxes on a slew of international trading partners, though Canadian imports for now were spared from new taxes.

The Senate’s legislation has practically no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House and being signed by Trump, but it showed the limits of Republican support for Trump’s vision of remaking the U.S. economy by restricting free trade. Many economists are warning that the plan could cause an economic contraction, and GOP senators are already watching with unease as Trump upends the United States’ relationship with the rest of the world.

Trump earlier Wednesday singled out the four Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rand Paul of Kentucky — who voted in favor of the resolution.

In a statement following the vote, McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader, said, “As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most.”

To justify the tariffs, Trump has argued that Canada is not doing enough to stop illegal drugs from entering the northern border. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl in its northern border sector during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to federal data. Meanwhile, at the southern border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.

“This is not about fentanyl. It’s about tariffs. It’s about a national sales tax on American families,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who initiated the resolution, at a news conference Wednesday.

Democrats argued that Trump is using the tariffs to pay for proposed tax cuts that would benefit the wealthy, but will also make it more expensive to build homes, buy cars and pay for imported grocery products. Kaine pointed to aluminum imported from Canada that is used by businesses ranging from pie makers to shipbuilders.

“Today, Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to the American economy and even to the American dream,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech.

On the heels of election results in Wisconsin and Florida that delivered early warning signs to Republicans about the popularity of Trump's agenda, Schumer said that the president is particularly vulnerable when it comes to the economy.

“Once the American people say, ‘I don’t want to embrace somebody, I don’t want to vote for somebody, I don’t want to support somebody who embraces Trump’s policies,’ things are going to change," he told reporters. “Public sentiment is everything."

At the White House on Wednesday, Trump singled out Canada as a beneficiary of “unfair” trading practices with the U.S., though his latest order did not add to tariffs already in place on Canada and Mexico.

“Why are we doing this? I mean, at what point do we say, ‘You’ve got to work for yourselves and you’ve got to’? This is why we have the big deficits," Trump said.

For their part, Republican leaders tried to hold their members in line not by talking about the impacts of tariffs, but by emphasizing that Trump was acting to address fentanyl trafficking and border security.

Majority Whip Sen. John Barrasso argued in a floor speech that former President Joe Biden had “also thrown open the northern border. The criminal cartels noticed and they took advantage.”

"There are unique threats to the United States at our northern border," the Wyoming senator said. “President Trump is taking the bold, decisive, swift action that is necessary to secure that border as well.”

Republicans lined up on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to underscore the need to act to halt fentanyl trafficking, including at the northern border. However, it was not enough to persuade a key group of Senate Republicans who objected to the tax on Canadian imports.

In a floor speech Wednesday, Collins said she would support the resolution and noted, “The fact is the vast majority of fentanyl in America comes from the southern border.”

Collins said that Canada is already beefing up border security to address drug trafficking, yet she was concerned about what tariffs would do to businesses and households in Maine. She pointed to a paper mill in her home state that pumps paper pulp from Canada.

“A tariff placed on this pulp would jeopardize the financial wellbeing of this vital paper mill, which employs more than 500 people in rural, northern Maine. There is not another big employer in that area that can possibly compensate for the loss of those 510 direct jobs,” Collins said.

Paul, a Kentucky Republican who often supports libertarian economic views, also delivered an impassioned floor speech, arguing that the president should not be given unilateral authority to impose taxes on imports.

“Every dollar collected in tariff revenue comes straight out of the pockets of American consumers,” he said. “Conservatives used to understand that tariffs are taxes on the American people. Conservatives used to be uniformly opposed to raising taxes because we wanted the private marketplace, the private individuals to keep more of their income.”

While a younger group of Republicans closely aligned with Trump has spoken out in favor of the president's plans to aggressively reshape the economy, a sizable portion of the Republican Conference voiced concerns about the tariff impacts on farmers and other industries. Still, most wanted to give Trump room in hopes that he would negotiate better trade deals.

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said that he has been in constant talks with both Canadian officials and businesses in his state, like Bobcat, which does a significant amount of its sales in Canada. He voted against the resolution. Instead, he hoped that Trump's order would just be a starting point for negotiations to mutually drop tariffs.

The Republican added: “I’m not overly concerned about it, but obviously it occupies a lot of attention and time and a lot of political anxiety."

Democrats planned to keep pressing into that anxiety. After Trump’s announcement, Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on social media he would also force a similar vote in the House on the tariffs.

“Republicans can’t keep ducking this — it’s time they show whether they support the economic pain Trump is inflicting on their constituents,” he said.

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed reporting.

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., joined at left by Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., speaks to reporters about President Donald Trump' tariffs on foreign countries, at the Capitol, in Washington, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., lingers for additional questions from reporters after he and other Democrats spoke about President Donald Trump's tariffs on foreign countries, at the Capitol, in Washington, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., center, is joined from left by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., as they speak to reporters about President Donald Trump's tariffs on foreign countries, at the Capitol, in Washington, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., joined by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., left, talks to reporters ahead of announcements by President Donald Trump on tariffs and why he has put forward a resolution that would end an emergency Fentanyl declaration that Trump used to impose tariffs on Canada, at the Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks at a news conference regarding President Donald Trump's pending tariffs on Canada, at the Capitol, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., joined by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, left, talks to reporters at the Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., left, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., center, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., talk before a news conference regarding President Donald Trump's pending tariffs on Canada, at the Capitol, Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP) — A 70-year-old man who plays in an area senior hardball league popped into Victus Sports this week because he needed bats for the new season. Plus he just had to take some cuts with baseball's latest fad and see for himself if there really was some wizardry in the wallop off a torpedo bat.

Ed Costantini, of Newtown Square, picked up the custom-designed VOLPE11-TPD Pro Reserve Maple, and took his hacks just like MLB stars and Victus customers Anthony Volpe or Bryson Stott would inside the company's batting cage and tracked the ball’s path on the virtual Citizens Bank Park on the computer screens.

Most big leaguers use that often indistinguishable “feel” as a qualifier as to how they select a bat.

Costantini had a similar process and thought the hype surrounding the torpedo since it exploded into the baseball consciousness over the weekend was a “hoax.” But after dozens of swings in the cage, where he said the balance was better, the ball sounded more crisp off the bat, the left-handed hitter ordered on the spot four custom-crafted torpedo bats at $150 a pop.

“The litmus test that I used was, I could see where the marks of the ball were,” Costantini said. “The swings were hitting the thickness of the torpedo as opposed to the end of the bat.”

More than just All-Stars want a crack at the torpedo — a striking design in which wood is moved lower down the barrel after the label and shapes the end a little like a bowling pin — and Costantini’s purchase highlighted the surge of interest in baseball’s shiny new toy outside the majors.

Think of home runs in baseball, and the fan’s mind races to the mammoth distances a ball can fly when slugged right on the nose, or a history-making chase that captivates a nation.

Of lesser interest, the ol’ reliable wood bat itself.

That was, of course, until Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger hit back-to-back homers for the New York Yankees last Saturday to open a nine-homer barrage. Victus Sports, known as much for their vibrant bats painted as pencils or the Phillie Phanatic dressed as a King’s Guard, had three employees at the game and they started a text thread where they hinted to those back home that, perhaps more than home runs were taking off.

Business was about to boom, too.

Yankees crowed about the torpedo-shape concept that had baseball buzzing -- and pitchers grumbling. The scuttlebutt and headlines stoked their super curious peers, most with an eye out for any legal, offensive edge, into asking Victus and other bat manufacturers about the possibility of taking a swing with the most famous style of bat since Roy Hobbs grabbed a “Wonderboy.”

Victus spent most of the last 14 years trying to help shape the future of baseball. The company’s founders just never imagined that shape would resemble a bowling pin.

“It was the most talked about thing about bats that we ever experienced,” Victus co-founder Jared Smith said.

Victus isn't the only company producing the bulgy bats, but they were among the first to list them for sale online after the Yankees' made them the talk of the sports world. The torpedo bat took the league by storm in only 24 hours, and days later, the calls and orders, and test drives -- from big leaguers to rec leaguers -- are humming inside the company’s base, in a northwest suburb of Philadelphia.

“The amount of steam that it’s caught, this quickly, that’s certainly surprising,” Smith said. “If the Yankees hitting nine home runs in a game doesn’t happen, this doesn’t happen.”

Victus was stamped this season as the official bat of Major League Baseball and business was already good: Phillies slugger Bryce Harper is among the stars who stick their bats on highlight reels.

But that torpedo-looking hunk of lumber? It generated about as much interest last season in baseball as a .200 hitter. Victus made its first torpedoes around 2024 spring training when the Yankees reached out about crafting samples for their players. Victus, as dialed-in as anyone in the bat game, only made about a dozen last season, and about a dozen more birch or maple bats this spring.

This week alone, try hundreds of torpedoes.

“Every two minutes, another one comes out of the machine,” Smith said.

Who knew there would be a baseball bat craze?

On a good day, Victus makes 600-700 bats, but the influx of pro orders -- the company estimates at least half of every starting lineup uses Victus or Marucci bats -- has sent production into overdrive. The creation of a typical bat is usually a two-day process, but one can be turned around without a finish in about 20 minutes. Victus crafted rush-order bats Monday morning for a few interested Phillies and dashed to Citizens Bank Park for delivery moments before first pitch. All-Star third baseman Alec Bohm singled with one.

Stott tested bats at the Marucci hit lab down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, churning through styles until the company found the right fit.

“They connect all these wires to you, and you swing 1,000 bats,” Stott said. “And they kind of tell you where you’re hitting the ball mostly.”

Here’s the surprising part of the torpedo bat: For all its early hype, the bat is no rookie in the game.

The lethal lumber has been used by some sluggers in baseball for at least a year or two only, well, no one really noticed. Giancarlo Stanton and Francisco Lindor used torpedoes last season. Other players experimented with it and no one — not the bulk of other players or journalists or fans — ever really picked up on the newfangled advance in hitting innovation.

Smith said only “a few baseball junkies” inquired about the bats.

“I think it’s just one of those things that until you’re looking for it, you might not see it,” Smith said. “Now when you look at pictures, you’re like, oh yeah, it’s a torpedo.”

Aaron Leanhardt, a former Yankees front-office staffer who now works for the Miami Marlins, was credited as the one who developed the torpedo barrel to bring more mass to a bat’s sweet spot.

A member of Victus’ parent company, Marucci Sports, worked with Leanhardt in a Louisiana branch of their hit lab last year to get the bat off the ground and into the hands of big leaguers.

“I think getting past the shape being different was the hardest barrier,” Smith said. “Then the team goes out and hits those home runs like they did and everyone is willing to try it.”

Before last weekend, Victus had no plans to mass produce the bat, making it only available to professionals.

Now, Smith said, “I think it’s our job to kind of educate the public in what’s out there.”

The odd shape off the bat — like making a sausage, the meat is simply pushed down the casing — has little to no effect at Victus on the dynamics of making a baseball bat. The cost is the same as a standard bat, too, with a sticker price starting at around $200. Only the slogan is punched up: Get your hands on the most-talked about bat in the game.

Victus was created by Smith and Ryan Engroff in a Blackwood, New Jersey, garage in 2012 and exploded in popularity over the last decade thanks in the large part to its bat art. Bruce Tatum, an in-house artist known as “The Bat King,” calls his memorable designs such as the No. 2 pencil and crayon bats notably used in the Little League Classic “swingable art.” The Victus walls look straight out of an art gallery, only instead of classic paintings, rows and rows of colorful bats emblazoned with everything from Harper’s face to Gritty’s eyes are on display.

“Normally people are here to talk about the Bat King,” Smith said, laughing.

He was busy, sketching ideas for next year’s bats for the baseball All-Star game in Philadelphia.

“Bruce’s cheesesteak bat, I’m just telling you, is going to be the talk of the town,” Smith said. “I guarantee it.”

Victus has over 300 employees and 60 alone inside their King of Prussia headquarters. The company has outgrown its base and is busting at the seams, and when a bat suddenly goes viral, “all our seams are exposed.”

The folks at Victus — who previously have experimented with axe handle and puck knobs — have no fear the bat will become the baseball equal to the NFL’s tush push, a fresh wrinkle that some might try to legislate out of the game.

MLB has relatively uncomplicated bat rules, stating under 3.02: “The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.” It goes on to state there may be a cupped indentation up to 1 1/4 inches in depth, 2 inches wide and with at least a 1-inch diameter, and experimental models must be approved by MLB.

The torpedo is 100% legal.

Year after year, Victus' bat business has picked up. Jonny Gomes used a Victus bat when he went deep in the 2013 World Series and Harper stamped the company as a major player when he played for Washington and swung a “We The People” bat and tossed it in the air to win the 2018 Home Run Derby.

“Our product kept getting better and it got to the point where he probably felt like we had the best bat, and we felt like we had the best bat,” Smith said.

There's not enough data yet to truly know how much oomph — or hits and homers — a torpedo bat may help some hitters. Cincinnati's Elly De La Cruz picked one up for the first time Monday and had a single, double and two home runs for a career-high seven RBIs.

Not all hitters are believers —- or at least feel like they need to tinker with their lumber.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who hit an AL-record 62 homers in 2022 and 58 last year en route to his second AL MVP award, declined to try the new bat, asking, “Why try to change something?” Phillies All-Star shortstop Trea Turner said the hoopla was “blown out of proportion.”

“You’ve still got to hit the ball,” Turner said.

Turner, though, said he was open to trying the torpedo.

Arizona pitcher Zac Gallen grew up a Mark McGwire fan and compared the fad to the bloated barrel used by the retired St. Louis Cardinals’ slugger’s old Nerf bat.

“The concept seems so simple. For it to take this long is wild,” Gallen said.

No matter. The bat is here today and not going anywhere — except perhaps flying off the shelves.

“For bats to be the hot topic out in the zeitgeist is cool,” Smith said. “It’s kind of like our time to shine, in a way.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Miami Marlins field coordinator Aaron Leanhardt, who helped develop the torpedo bat, watches batting practice before a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the New York Mets, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

New York Yankees' Anthony Volpe bats with one of the team's newly-made torpedo-shaped bats in a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers, Saturday, March 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Caiden Gelowicz manufactures a torpedo baseball bat at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Tom Quirk, left, and Jim Levasseur manufacture torpedo baseball bats at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Jim Levasseur, left, and Joseph D'Emilio manufacture torpedo baseball bats at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Torpedo baseball bats are displayed at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Tom Quirk manufactures a torpedo baseball bat at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Customers Ed Costantini, left, and Jack Bradley compare a conventional bat with a torpedo baseball bat at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Tom Fazzini manufactures torpedo baseball bats at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Tom Quirk manufactures a torpedo baseball bat at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Tom Quirk manufactures a torpedo baseball bat at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Jared Smith speaks about torpedo baseball bats during an interview at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Tom Fazzini selects wood to be manufactured into a torpedo baseball bat at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Customers Ed Costantini, right, and Jack Bradley try a torpedo baseball bat at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Jim Levasseur manufactures a torpedo baseball bat at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Jared Smith speaks about torpedo baseball bats during an interview at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Torpedo baseball bats rest in a stand during the manufacturing process at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Jared Smith speaks about torpedo baseball bats during an interview at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)