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Senate Republicans offered a rare rebuke against President Donald Trump and his trade strategy on Tuesday, despite still remaining largely in lockstep amid the ongoing government shutdown.
A handful of Senate Republicans joined Senate Democrats to end Trump’s use of emergency powers to implement steep, 50% tariffs on Brazil. While the resolution, led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., advanced from the upper chamber, but it can’t be taken up in the House until early next year.
That’s because House Republicans recently passed a rule that would not allow the chamber to consider legislation dealing with Trump’s tariffs until January of next year.
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Five Senate Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, joined all Senate Democrats to advance the resolution.
Their defection from their GOP colleagues comes after Vice President JD Vance warned lawmakers not to vote against Trump’s usage of tariffs during Senate Republicans’ closed-door lunch earlier on Tuesday.
Vance argued after the lunch that tariffs give Trump leverage to craft new trade deals that benefit the country and urged Republicans not to break ranks against the president.
“To vote against that is to strip that incredible leverage from the president of the United States. I think it’s a huge mistake and I know most of the people in there agree with me,” he said.
Trump initially used emergency powers to enact stiffer tariffs on Brazil in July and argued “that the scope and gravity of the recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the U.S.
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It’s not the first time the Senate has disapproved of Trump’s tariffs. Earlier this year, Republicans joined Democrats to rebuke Trump’s emergency declaration for 25% tariffs against Canada, and they tried and failed to reject his use of global tariffs.
Kaine also has plans to bring two more resolutions, one to block tariffs on Canadian goods and the other on Trump’s global tariffs, later this week.
“It makes no sense to impose tariffs on Brazil, and it’s just being done to back up the president’s friend,” Kaine told reporters ahead of the vote.
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Kaine was referring to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who at the time of Trump’s declaration, was being prosecuted for an attempted coup after an election loss in 2022. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison in September.
Paul argued that “emergencies are like war, famine, tornado, not liking someone’s tariffs is not an emergency.”
“Tariffs are an import tax, they are a tax, not a tax on China,” Paul said. “It’s a tax on the people who buy stuff from China, which are mostly Americans. Taxes are supposed to originate in the House, so I will continue to vote to end the emergency.”
When asked why more Senate Republicans hadn’t joined him on his tariff position, Paul said, “Fear.”
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