--- title: Republican Senators Warn Against NAFTA Withdrawal description: Influential GOP lawmakers said President Donald Trump should lay off on a threatened move to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement. canonical: https://time.com/4757065/mccain-trump-nafta-withdrawal/ author: Ryan Kilpatrick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-27T03:12:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:37:43.259Z article:section: Politics og:title: Republican Senators Warn Against NAFTA Withdrawal og:description: Sen. John McCain said withdrawing would “be disgraceful and a disaster" og:url: https://time.com/4757065/mccain-trump-nafta-withdrawal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43d2e2167caa25ed/6988caddab6d7771e16add44/gettyimages-673467348.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Senate Lawmakers Attend Briefing On North Korea At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Republican Senators Warn Against NAFTA Withdrawal twitter:description: Sen. John McCain said withdrawing would “be disgraceful and a disaster" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt43d2e2167caa25ed/6988caddab6d7771e16add44/gettyimages-673467348.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Republican Senators Warn Trump Against Withdrawing From NAFTA > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Apr 27, 2017 3:12 AM UTC  Sen. John McCain departs the U.S. Capitol for a briefing at the White House April 26, 2017 in Washington, DC. Sen. John McCain departs the U.S. Capitol for a briefing at the White House April 26, 2017 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Apr 27, 2017 3:12 AM UTC Influential Republican [lawmakers said that](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/26/white-house-nafta-withdraw-trump-237632) President Donald Trump should lay off on a threatened [move to scrap](http://time.com/4756343/president-donald-trump-nafta-free-trade/) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake from Arizona, Sen. Lindsey Graham from South Carolina and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn have cautioned against signing an executive order to withdraw from the 23-year-old agreement allowing for the free flow of goods between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, Politico reports. McCain said that such a move would “be disgraceful and a disaster,” while Flake said a withdrawal would be harmful to his state and the country as a whole. Trump’s administration said on Wednesday that the President, who has vowed to pull out of NAFTA, is considering a draft executive order to withdraw from the trade pact as it nears renegotiation. “Trying to negotiate NAFTA makes sense, withdrawing from it doesn’t,” Graham told Politico. “I think we’d better be careful about unintended consequences,” warned Sen. Cornyn from Texas. Earlier this week, Trump [slapped tariffs](https://fortune.com/2017/04/26/trump-lumber-tariffs-canada-trudeau/?iid=sr-link4) on softwood lumber imports from Canada, after calling the country’s dairy practices “unfair.” Relations have also been tense with Mexico, which Trump has accused of destroying U.S. jobs while demanding that the country pay for a wall along its border with the U.S. \[[_Politico_](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/26/white-house-nafta-withdraw-trump-237632)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4757065/mccain-trump-nafta-withdrawal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4757065/mccain-trump-nafta-withdrawal/"},"headline":"Republican Senators Warn Trump Against Withdrawing From NAFTA","datePublished":"2017-04-27T03:12:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:37:43.259Z","description":"\"Trying to negotiate NAFTA makes sense, withdrawing from it doesn’t,” Sen. 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