The Republican-led Senate on Tuesday delivered a rare bipartisan rebuke of President Trump in a vote to terminate the emergency powers he has used to set tariffs on Brazil, part of a larger push to rein in the administration’s efforts to install trade barriers.
By a vote of 52 to 48, the Senate approved a measure that would roll back the 50% tariffs on Brazil imposed by President Trump in July. Five Republicans joined with Democrats to pass it: Susan Collins of Maine, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.
The success of the resolution, which needed just a simple majority to pass, may only prove symbolic. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is unlikely to bring the measure up for a vote in the House, and even if he did President Trump would almost certainly veto it.
Still, the vote marked a test of support for the president’s tariff policies among Republicans, reflecting unease inside the party about their impacts on the U.S. economy, and specifically the farming and manufacturing sectors. It came ahead of arguments at the Supreme Court this fall in a case challenging Trump’s authority to put sweeping tariffs in place using emergency powers.
Tuesday’s vote was the first of three planned by Democrats and a handful of Republicans aimed at rolling back the president’s tariff policies. Later this week, the Senate is expected to take up similar votes to reverse tariffs on Canada and other nations.
One of the lawmakers behind the push is Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the lead sponsor of the measure approved Tuesday. Ahead of the vote, Kaine told reporters the effort highlights the tariffs’ stark impacts on the U.S. economy in recent months.
“They’re about the economic destruction of tariffs, but they are also really about how much will we let a president get away with?” Kaine asked. “Do my colleagues have a gag reflex or not, in terms of powers that constitutionally are handed to Congress?”
The five Republicans who broke ranks did so despite a last minute lobbying push by Vice President JD Vance, who met with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and urged them to back the president’s policies. Vance told reporters after the lunch meeting that the tariffs are critical leverage for Trump in international negotiations.
To block the president’s emergency powers to set tariffs, “is to strip that incredible leverage from the president of the United States,” Vance told reporters outside the meeting room near the Senate chamber. “I think it’s a huge mistake, and I know most of the people in there agree with me.”
The vote took place as President Trump is in Asia for a multi-nation trip where trade talks are a top focus.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Vance told Republicans that Trump is essentially on a trade mission.
“It’s successful, and it’s bringing in a lot of revenue,” Hawley said about the trip as he explained his opposition to the measure. “I’m supportive of the president’s tariff policy.”
Not all Republicans were convinced. Tillis said after the meeting he would vote to limit the tariffs.
“I just don’t think there’s a rational basis for it,” Tillis said. “If you start allowing that … that creates a big uncertainty in the business community.”
Trump triggered the Brazil tariffs this summer to pressure the country’s government to end what he called a “witch hunt” against his ally, former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Last month, Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup to stay in power following his 2022 election defeat.
The vote wasn’t the first time Senate Republicans have broken with Trump on tariffs. In April, a measure to block tariffs on Canada drew a simple majority of the Republican-led Senate as a handful of G.O.P senators joined Democrats to push the measure across the finish line. Kaine and Paul co-sponsored the measure, and McConnell, Collins and Murkowski voted in favor.
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