Senate approves Democratic resolution to block Trump’s tariffs on Brazil

Washington — The Senate voted on Tuesday to approve a resolution that would block President Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, with five Republicans joining Democrats to back the measure in a rebuke to the president.

Led by Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, the resolution would terminate the national emergency that the administration is using to impose 50% tariffs on goods from Brazil. 

The vote to approve the measure was 52 to 48. Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul joined Democrats to vote in favor. The resolution required a simple majority and was not subject to the 60-vote threshold needed for most legislation. 

In July, Mr. Trump declared a national emergency with respect to “recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil” that he said constitute an “unusual and extraordinary threat.” The move came during the trial of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup in 2022.

“President Trump’s tariff regime — global, Brazilian tariffs, Canadian tariffs, tariff deals announced then paused, tariff deals negotiated, exceptions granted and in some cases not granted — have created huge chaos in the national economy,” Kaine said in a speech on the Senate floor before the vote. “Tariffs are a tax on American consumers. Tariffs are a tax on American businesses. And they are a tax that is imposed by a single person: Donald J. Trump.”

Kaine told reporters that the president’s emergency order was “unusual and extreme,” and accused him of putting it in place due to the “decision to prosecute Donald Trump’s friend.”

“If that’s an emergency, then anything is an emergency, and any president can make up anything and call it an emergency and then use massive powers to impose regulations or evade regulations,” Kaine said. 

The bill will still need to pass the House and be signed by the president, meaning it is mostly symbolic. House Republican leaders have taken steps to prevent lawmakers from forcing a vote on the president’s tariffs in the lower chamber.

But Kaine said Tuesday that he has learned that “the president is responsive to things like this.”

“When he sees Republicans starting to vote against his policies, even in small numbers, that makes an impression on him and can often cause him to alter his behavior,” he said. 

One of those Republican yes votes was McConnell, a former Senate majority leader who has clashed with Mr. Trump for years — including on trade policy. McConnell has long been skeptical of tariffs and supportive of free trade, a stance that was essentially considered doctrine in pre-Trump GOP politics.

“Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive,” McConnell said in a statement prior to the vote. “The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule.”

Earlier in the day, Vice President JD Vance met with Senate Republicans at the Capitol and urged them to reject the resolution.

“The point that I made to my Republican colleagues, recognizing that there’s a diversity of opinions about it, is that the tariffs give us the ability to put American workers first,” Vance told reporters after the meeting. “They force American industry to reinvest in the United States of America, instead of a foreign country. They’re also incredible leverage for the president of the United States in negotiating these trade deals overseas.”

The president cited a law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in his order imposing the Brazil tariffs. The act gives any senator the authority to force a vote to challenge the move, effectively bypassing Senate leadership.

In April, four Republicans joined Democrats to approve a measure aimed at blocking the Canada tariffs. Those Republicans were Murkowski of Alaska, Collins of Maine and McConnell, along with Paul of Kentucky, a Republican who cosponsored the legislation. Later that month, an effort aimed at blocking Mr. Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries around the world fell short, with two senators who had previously backed the tariff measure absent from the vote. The resolutions need a simple majority to pass. 

Kaine said he would force additional votes on Canadian tariffs and global tariffs throughout the week as he pushes back on the administration and puts pressure on Senate Republicans. 

“So the votes are about tariffs, and 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 said. “Do my colleagues have a gag reflex or not, in terms of powers that constitutionally are handed to Congress?”