Sen. Mark Warner warns risk of trade war, advocates sale of TikTok
Apr 02, 2025
(WAVY) — Sen. Mark Warner said the impacts of a trade war stemming from President Trump's increasing tariffs on products from other countries will hurt Virginians and the American people as he also called for the sale of TikTok to a non Chinese company.
Warner, along with Virginia's other sena
tor in Congress, Tim Kaine, and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has introduced a resolution to roll back the tariffs, even as the president doubled down on them during a Rose Garden event Wednesday, on what he called, "Liberation Day."
"April 2, 2025, will go down as one of the most important days in modern American history," Trump said, adding, "we help everybody, and they don't help us. The term I like best is the liberation of America. It's the liberation of this country."
Warner said the tariffs will hurt liquor distributors in Hampton Roads, and it will hurt the region's peanut industry.
“Let's at least get rid of the excuse of why Trump is using tariffs to attack Canada — our longest-serving ally," Warner said. "Liquor distributors in Hampton Roads, their market to Canada is basically going to disappear. Think about peanuts — Canada is the second biggest buyer of Virginia peanuts."
Warner also spoke on the future of TikTok, the popular social media app facing a possible ban in the U.S. for the second time this year.
"TikTok needs to be sold to a non Chinese entity," Warner said. "We don't want TikTok to go away, we just don't want it to be controlled by our adversaries. If the ending result is a result where the algorithm, the “secret sauce,” remains in Beijing, the whole effort has been a farce [and] the whole effort has been a scam.”
Trump was set to discuss a potential offer for TikTok Wednesday. The deadline for a sale is currently Saturday. ...read more read less