In a series of three votes this week, a slim majority of the GOP-led Senate delivered a rare, bipartisan rebuke of President Trump's use of emergency powers to set tariffs on Canada, Brazil and other countries.
The last of these votes — a measure approved Thursday to roll back global tariffs announced by Trump in April — passed by a margin of 51 to 47. Democrats cleared the measure with support from four Republicans: Susan Collins of Maine, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Kentucky's Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.
"The way that the president has imposed the tariffs is leading to nothing but chaos," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the lead sponsor of the measure, said ahead of the vote. Kaine said the strategy behind Trump's tariff policy amounted to, "Announce tariffs on everyone, then announce that they may be suspended or delayed while I work out one-on-one deals."
Earlier this week, the same four Republican senators joined Democrats to approve resolutions to terminate tariffs on Brazil and Canada that were announced using emergency powers. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., joined Democrats to terminate the Brazil tariffs, which he argued specifically had no rational basis.
The vast majority of Senate Republicans voted against the measures, with many saying that at this point they're counterproductive to the president's tariff program. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said Trump's new plans to lower China's tariffs Thursday were a good reminder. Trump announced the plans after meeting in South Korea with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
"The president's negotiations are bearing fruit. President Trump already announced new trade deals," Crapo said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. "Other deals are, hopefully, forthcoming."
However, the success of this week's resolution votes, which only needed a simple majority to pass, may not go far. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., installed a special rule to block such votes in the House, so they're currently unlikely to reach the floor. Even if they were to somehow pass the House, President Trump would almost certainly veto them.
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.
Thursday's vote wasn't the first time Senate Republicans took up Trump's authority to set global tariffs. In April, a similar measure failed 49 to 49. That same month, a measure to block tariffs on Canada drew a simple majority in the Senate.
"Since then our nation's trade policy has looked pretty much like a dog chasing a squirrel," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a lead co-sponsor of the global tariffs resolution, said on the Senate floor on Thursday. "More tariffs threatened, added, taken away, thousands of packages being destroyed because the customs service wasn't prepared, secretive deals to lift tariffs for certain companies and products that have influence at the White House."
The Republicans who broke ranks did so despite a 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.
But Tillis, for example, was one of those Republicans not convinced when it came at least to the Brazil tariffs.
"I just don't think there's a rational basis for it," Tillis said.
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.
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