Senate votes to block Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a resolution Tuesday night that would roll back tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on Brazil, including on oil, coffee and orange juice, as Democrats test Republican senators’ support for Trump’s trade policy.
The legislation by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, passed by a 52-48 vote.
Photo AP/J. Scott Apple White
It would end the national emergencies Trump has declared to justify 50% tariffs on Brazil, but the legislation is likely doomed because the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved new rules allowing leaders to block it from being put to a vote. Trump would almost certainly veto the legislation even if it passed Congress.
Still, the vote demonstrated some rejection in the ranks of the Republican Party against Trump’s tariffs. Five Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — voted in favor of the resolution along with all Democrats.
Kaine said the votes are a way to force a conversation in the Senate about “the economic destruction of tariffs.” He is planning to request similar resolutions applying to Trump’s tariffs on Canada and other nations later this week.
“But they’re also about how much we’ll let a president get away with it. Do my colleagues have a gag reflex or not?” Kaine told reporters.
Trump has linked the tariffs on Brazil to the country’s policies and the criminal prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The United States had a trade surplus of $6.8 billion with Brazil last year, according to the Census Bureau.
“Every American who wakes up in the morning to have a cup of coffee is paying the price for Donald Trump’s reckless, ridiculous and almost childish tariffs,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Republicans have also grown increasingly uncomfortable with Trump’s aggressive trade policy, especially at a time of economic turmoil. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said last month that Trump’s tariff policy is one of several factors expected to increase unemployment and inflation rates and reduce overall growth this year.
In April, four Republicans voted with Democrats to block tariffs on Canada, but the bill was never adopted in the House. Kaine said he hoped this week’s votes would show how Republican opposition to Trump’s trade policy is growing.
To increase voting, Kaine has invoked a decades-old law that allows Congress to block the president’s emergency powers and members of the minority party to force a vote on resolutions.
However, Vice President JD Vance attended a Republican luncheon on Tuesday in part to emphasize to Republicans that they should allow the president to negotiate trade deals. Vance told reporters afterward that Trump is using the tariffs “to give American workers and farmers a better deal.”
“Voting against is taking away that incredible influence from the president of the United States. I think it is a big mistake,” he added.
The Supreme Court will also soon consider a case challenging Trump’s authority to implement sweeping tariffs. Lower courts have declared most of its tariffs illegal.
But some Republicans said they would wait until the outcome of that case before voting to anger the president.
“I don’t see the need to do that now,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, adding that it was “a bad time” to file rulings in the Supreme Court case.
Others said they are willing to show opposition to the president’s tariffs and the emergency declarations he has used to justify them.
“Tariffs make it more expensive to both build and buy in the United States,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former longtime Republican leader, said in a statement. “The economic damage from trade wars is not the exception in history, but the rule.”
Silas Walker/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Fellow Kentuckian Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, told reporters: “Emergencies are like war, famine, a tornado. Not liking someone’s tariffs is not an emergency. It’s an abuse of emergency power. And it’s Congress abdicating its traditional role in taxation.”
In a speech on the floor, he added: “Our Constitution does not include taxation without representation.”
Meanwhile, Kaine also plans to request a resolution that would curb Trump’s ability to carry out military strikes against Venezuela as the US military intensifies its presence and action in the region.
He said it allows Democrats to come off the defensive while in the minority and instead force the vote on “points of discomfort” for Republicans.