Thune says Trump's tariffs should be 'temporary' amid market volatility

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he supports President Trump using tariffs to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States but said the tariffs should be temporary, citing the growing uncertainty that is roiling the financial markets.

“The president, I believe, is trying to accomplish a specific objective here and that is to halt the flow of fentanyl into this country, and the tariffs are a tool in order to make that happen. And I am supportive of using tariffs in a way to accomplish a specific objective, in this case, ending drug traffic,” Thune told reporters Tuesday when asked about the reverberations Trump’s tariff threats are having on the markets.

But Thune warned that the tariffs shouldn’t last for long, given their impact on the domestic economy.

“I hope these are temporary. I think the one thing that markets don't like is uncertainty, and there's obviously uncertainty around that tariff policy at the moment," he said.

Thune addressed Trump’s trade war with Canada and Mexico, two of the United States's biggest trading partners, amid growing angst within the Senate GOP conference over where the economy is headed.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), an outspoken critic of Trump’s trade policies, warned Monday that Republicans would be wise to pay attention to the warnings being flashed by the financial markets.

“The stock market is comprised of millions of people who are simultaneously trading. The market indexes are a distillation of sentiment. When the markets tumble like this in response to tariffs, it pays to listen,” Paul posted on the social platform X.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped another 478 points Tuesday, leading the S&P 500 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite to also fall lower.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters Tuesday afternoon that Trump had dropped his plan to raise tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports by 50 percent.