Senate Republicans delivered a rare rebuke to President Donald Trump’s trade policy on Tuesday, even as they continue to largely back him during the ongoing government shutdown.
Five GOP senators joined Democrats in voting to end Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose 50% tariffs on Brazil, Fox News reported.
The resolution, led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., advanced from the Senate with a 52-48 vote.
However, it cannot be considered in the House until early next year due to a recently passed Republican rule barring tariff-related legislation until January.
The five Republican senators breaking ranks were Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
Their votes came despite Vice President JD Vance warning Republicans during a closed-door lunch not to oppose the president’s trade powers.
Vance said tariffs provide Trump with critical leverage in global negotiations.
“To vote against that is to strip that incredible leverage from the president of the United States,” Vance told reporters. “I think it’s a huge mistake and I know most of the people in there agree with me.”
Trump invoked emergency powers in July to raise tariffs on Brazil, arguing 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 United States.
It marked the second time this year that the Senate has opposed one of Trump’s tariff declarations.
Earlier, lawmakers voted to disapprove of Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canada, and a separate effort to block his global tariff powers fell short.
Kaine said he plans to introduce two more resolutions later this week — one to block tariffs on Canadian goods and another to challenge Trump’s worldwide tariffs.
“It makes no sense to impose tariffs on Brazil, and it’s just being done to back up the president’s friend,” Kaine said before the vote.
Kaine was referring to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison in September for attempting to overturn his 2022 election defeat.
Sen. Rand Paul criticized Trump’s emergency declarations, calling them a misuse of power.
“Emergencies are like war, famine, tornado,” Paul said. “Not liking someone’s tariffs is not an emergency.”
“Tariffs are an import tax,” he continued. “They are a tax, not a tax on China. 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,” Paul said.
When asked why more Republicans had not joined him, Paul replied, “Fear.”
Vice President Vance unleashed a wave of MAGA-fueled criticism against Sen. Mitch McConnell, delivering a rare public rebuke of the former Republican leader for refusing to back a key Pentagon nominee.
The war of words began shortly after McConnell became the only Republican to vote against Elbridge Colby, who was chosen by President Donald Trump as the Defense Department’s top policy strategist.
“Make no mistake: America will not be made great again by those who are content to manage our decline,” McConnell said in a statement that was quickly circulated on social media.
“Mitch’s vote today—like so much of the last few years of his career—is one of the great acts of political pettiness I’ve ever seen,” Vance noted in an X post.
A wave of other conservative voices joined the VP, fed up with McConnell’s feud with and behavior toward the president.
“Elbridge Colby is one of the brightest foreign policy minds in the GOP and it’s pathetic watching Mitch McConnell continue to stand with Dems to sabotage President Trump,” Kentucky businessman Nate Morris wrote on X. “This is why whoever replaces Mitch for Senate needs to represent a clean break from him – Time for a change!”
Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) replied to Vance’s post: “Glad things are changing.”