Rand Paul: Why I Oppose Trump's Tariffs
The Kentucky senator joins Just Asking Questions to explain why he's fighting against the president's unilateral tariffs.
Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) has been speaking out against President Donald Trump's tariffs. He supported a bill to repeal the emergency powers that allowed him to levy tariffs on Canada and recently co-sponsored a joint resolution with Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) to immediately terminate the national emergency that Trump declared in order to impose the worldwide tariffs. Paul joins the show today to explain his opposition to tariffs, defend free trade, warn about the dangers of expansive emergency powers, and discuss his own bill to end unilateral tariffs for good: the No Taxation Without Representation Act of 2025.
This interview was recorded on April 8, 2025.
Sources Referenced:
- List of largest daily changes in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
- A joint resolution terminating the national emergency declared to impose duties on articles imported from Canada.
- Trump blasts "disloyal" Republicans on Truth Social
- Flexport's reverse engineering of tariff formula
- Just Asking Questions with Batya Ungar-Sargon: The Case for MAGA Leftism
Chapters:
- 00:00 Coming up…
- 00:22 Introduction
- 01:04 Can the president start a trade war alone?
- 04:25 Congress vs. emergency powers on tariffs
- 06:11 Paul reacts to Trump's market and trade comments
- 09:09 Is the middle class really hollowed out?
- 13:59 Tariffs, class warfare, and the MAGA Left
- 16:33 Debunking the Rust Belt narrative and the future of jobs
- 20:46 Paul on the Taxation Without Representation Act
- Producer: John Osterhoudt
