Klobuchar Hits Trump On Tariffs: You Can’t Be ‘just Declaring Yourself A King’

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, bashed President Donald Trump’s tariffs as “devastating” for U.S. farmers and producers.

Klobuchar, speaking at POLITICO Playbook’s First 100 Days breakfast series, said Trump should be working through trade issues in the context of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, “not by just declaring yourself a king.”

“The way to negotiate this is in the USMCA,” she said.

Trump expanded steel and aluminum tariffs earlier this week, though he eventually delayed widespread 25 percent tariffs on a significant portion of Canadian and Mexican goods. He also lowered tariffs on potash, a key fertilizer ingredient that's largely imported from Canada, to 10 percent, which some Republicans have pushed to be exempted altogether.

The tariffs are prompting panic among U.S. farmers and producers and have generated pushback from ag groups like the Farm Bureau who are concerned that prices for inputs like seeds and fertilizers could rise. Republicans on Capitol Hill, while nervous for their constituents, have been mostly willing to let Trump work through his trade negotiations.

Klobuchar said she does support “targeted” tariffs and backs the USMCA — a “crown jewel” of the first Trump term, she said — but called Trump’s current plan “much different.”

Shortly after, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) also piled on, saying the on-again, off-again tariffs are “driving Minnesota producers nuts.”

“People are literally coming into my office and saying, 'I don't think I can do this anymore. Like I'm just, I'm gonna, I'm giving up.’ And that's a really worrisome thing,” Smith said at the Thursday breakfast series.