Marco Rubio breaks with Senate Republicans to defend Trump’s tariffs on Mexico

“I don’t generally like tariffs either. But what alternative do my GOP colleagues have to get #Mexico to secure its southern border,use [sic] the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to screen northbound rail cars & vehicles & act on intel we provide on human traffickers?” he tweeted.

Trump said last week he would impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican goods, increasing 5% every month until the “illegal immigration problem is remedied.”

Republicans have pushed back against the added tax on imports, saying the tariffs would hurt the U.S. economy without resolving the influx of illegal immigrants.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Tuesday “there is not much support in my conference for tariffs, that’s for sure.”

Senate Republicans, particularly those representing farm states, are concerned about a cutoff of export markets for local businesses. They also contend tariffs by definition are a tax and violate the GOP’s self-proclaimed free market principles.

“There is no upside for Senate Republicans to back these dumb tariffs on Mexico,” tweeted Rory Cooper, a former senior House leadership aide, now a managing director at Purple Strategies. “Trump will abandon them when the going gets tough and they’ll be stuck owning a pointless policy that abdicates their power.”