Donald Trump lost it on Truth Social after six House Republicans voted with Democrats to effectively repeal his Canada tariffs, warning that the GOP rebels “will seriously suffer the consequences.”
“Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!” Trump wrote.
The vote marked a rare crack in GOP unity. Reps. Thomas Massie, Don Bacon, Kevin Kiley, Jeff Hurd, Brian Fitzpatrick and Dan Newhouse sided with Democrats in a vote to cancel the tariffs that have become a cornerstone of Trump’s second-term trade agenda. Party leadership had worked hard to prevent the vote from even happening — and failed.
Speaker Mike Johnson initially tried to downplay the tension, telling reporters the president was “not upset.”
“He’s not upset. I just left the White House. He understands what’s going on. It’s not going to affect or change his policy. He can veto these things if they come to it,” Johnson said.
Minutes later, Trump’s threat went public.
The rebellion may have been small, but it was pointed. Some Republicans say the tariffs are hitting their districts directly. Rep. Jeff Hurd said farmers and steel manufacturers back home are feeling the effects.
“At the end of the day, I looked at the Constitution, I looked at what was in the best interest of my district, and I took the vote. It’s not easy, but it’s the right thing and I stand by it,” Hurd said.
Asked whether he fears Trump’s retaliation, he responded: “I do the right thing, and what the consequences are, we’ll have to see.”
Rep. Dan Newhouse said “absolutely” the tariffs have driven up prices on “fertilizer, equipment, a lot of the inputs and agricultural producers or farmers need” in his state, which has close trade ties with Canada.
Rep. Don Bacon framed his vote as a matter of congressional authority as much as economics. “He needs to know that we’re not a rubberstamp,” Bacon said, noting that many Republicans privately agree but hesitate to cross the president. “From my vantage point, people feel like they’re in between a rock or a hard place because they don’t want to get on the bad side of the president.”
The Senate has already passed a similar measure to cancel the Canada tariffs, and it only required a simple majority. But even if both chambers align, Trump can veto it — and the House does not have the two-thirds majority needed to override him.
Johnson later dismissed the effort as a “fruitless exercise,” acknowledging he was “disappointed” while insisting “it’s not going to change the policy in the end anyway.”
The vote may not stop Trump’s tariffs. But it did something else — it forced Republicans to choose between their districts and the president.
