President Donald Trump speaks at a reception in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/The Canadian Press via AP

But as that day dawned, Trump was clearly spooked.

In a past-midnight social media post on Wednesday, the American president warned “disloyal” Republican lawmakers against supporting a resolution to rebuke the imposition of fentanyl-and-migrant-related tariffs against Canada.

“They are playing with the lives of the American people, and right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats and Drug Cartels,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial.

A vote could come as early as Wednesday in the Senate, putting a symbolic damper on a moment that Trump has touted as Liberation Day, when he is expected to impose trade duties on a wide swath of countries, including Canada.

The Senate resolution was drafted by Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine and co-sponsored by Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a committed opponent of tariffs.

Kaine warns that the tariffs will raise the prices of vital goods for American consumers like groceries and agricultural products.

To pass, the resolution needs the votes of all 47 Democrats as well as at least four Republicans, who would be voting against their party and their president.

Kaine wrote Tuesday on X that he “look(s) forward to forcing a vote tomorrow on my legislation to challenge Trump’s trade war with Canada.”

The resolution proposes quite simply that “the national emergency declared on February 1, 2025, by the President in Executive Order 14193 … is terminated.”

That presidential order imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian exports as a way to force Ottawa to address with the flow of migrants and drugs entering into U.S. from its territory.

The tariffs went into effect earlier this month after a one-month delay, and provoked retaliatory tariffs from the Canadian government.

Even if the Senate resolution obtains the Republican votes needed to pass, it will not force Trump to rescind his executive order or repeal the earlier tariffs.

But it would be the biggest political rebuke to his defining trade and economic agenda since he began his second term in office.

In his post, Trump named and shamed Sen. Paul, as well as fellow Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell. He also identified Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

Trump urged residents in Kentucky, Alaska and Maine to contact the offices of the four Republicans “and get them to FINALLY adhere to Republican Values and Ideals.”

“Hopefully (they will) get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats (sic) wild and flagrant push not to 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’s social media post oddly suggests that U.S. tariffs would be applied to shipments of illegal drugs smuggled across the border from Canada. In fact, tariffs are applied to exports of legal goods exported into the U.S. and would have no direct bearing on the cost of street drugs.

In response to the tariff threat, Canada has, however, scaled up its observation and protection of the border and appointed a “Fentanyl Czar” to coordinate law enforcement activities against drug gangs and traffickers. In late February, the federal government also designated seven known drug cartels as terrorist organizations.