OTTAWA, Ontario — It was a hallmark of President Donald Trump’s first term. Senators from both parties – but especially senior Republicans – would travel to foreign capitals to reassure heads of state who were anxious and, in some cases, downright fearful of the wildly unpredictable new president.
Congress’ “global reassurance” tour, as it was referred to colloquially, has returned — but with a twist.
The first time around, even with total GOP control of Washington, lawmakers could credibly lean on Congress’ role as a check on presidential power to reassure U.S. allies about Trump. They can’t say the same today, making the “reassuring” a lot harder.
The new playbook: A bipartisan delegation of five senators traveled here Friday aiming to cool U.S.-Canada tensions amid unprecedented hostility from Washington. That included a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney and separate sit-downs with his top ministers.
Trump’s tariffs, paired with his brash rhetoric and musings about making Canada the 51st state, have contributed to an anti-American sentiment here that has fueled a steep drop in Canadian tourism. Four of the five senators on the trip hail from border states where that decline is being felt economically.
“It’s not like we are naive about how hard this has been. Especially the border states. Every single day we feel it,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who joined the delegation. “We know it’s been bad. But we just want to get to a better place. That’s why we’re here.”
Yet the strategy to achieve that is much different than it was eight years ago.
In 2017, Trump’s grip on the GOP wasn’t nearly as strong as it is today. Significant contingents of both the Senate and House Republican conferences were Trump-skeptical.
As a result, Republicans embarking on “reassurance” tours could — and often did — remind skittish foreign leaders of the guardrails in place to prevent Trump from implementing some of his more drastic proposals that rankled allied nations.
This was a Congress that forced Trump to sign a sweeping Russia sanctions package he deeply opposed. Lawmakers passed it with big margins in the Senate (98-2) and House (419-3), making it impossible for Trump to fight them.
When Trump threatened to withdraw from NATO, senators revived the NATO Observer Group. Then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) helped introduce a bill preventing the president from withdrawing absent congressional approval.
Fast-forward to 2025. Eighty-one senators, including the majority and minority leaders, have signed onto a Russia sanctions bill as Russian President Vladimir Putin strings Trump along. But the reality of today’s Congress is that this bill is going nowhere without Trump’s signoff.
So the current version of the “reassurance tour” is rooted more in symbolism than any reality that senators will act as a check on Trump, especially the GOP ones.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who led the delegation here and spearheaded many of those tours during Trump’s first term, vowed to bring “positive messages” from the Canada trip back to Washington. “Ultimately,” Shaheen added, “it’s the prime minister and the president who will decide to reset the relationship.”
A Canadian twist: Republicans prevented Trump from carrying out much of his trade agenda during his first term. Today, just a handful of Republican senators voted to block Trump’s Canada tariffs.
Speaker Mike Johnson also moved to prevent these votes from even happening in the House. And a bipartisan bill to reclaim Congress’ authority over tariffs has stalled out.
So it was impossible for Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) to reassure Canadian officials the same way he might have previously. In Ottawa, Kaine pitched his legislation to block Trump’s Canada tariffs, but he acknowledged it’ll only have an impact if more Republicans sign on.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (N.D.), the only Republican in the delegation, said foreign leaders often “fear Trump more than they need to.”
But senators are still trying to help reverse the Trump-fueled anger that’s causing many Canadians to scrap their U.S. vacations. It’s hurting North Dakota’s economy, Cramer said, noting that retailers are seeing a 30% decline.
“The symbolism of our trip is important. It’s not just a trifling thing,” Cramer said. “Hopefully the message of that symbol is, we want to do business with our friend Canada.”
