Congressional Republicans are breaking ranks with the president on trade policy.
The United States Senate delivered a stunning rebuke to President Donald Trump’s trade agenda on Tuesday, passing a measure to terminate his comprehensive tariffs on Brazilian imports by a 52-48 margin.
The vote marked a rare bipartisan challenge to the president’s economic strategy, with five Republican senators crossing party lines to join Democrats in opposition to the levies on coffee, beef and other Brazilian products.
Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky voted alongside the Democratic caucus to advance the resolution.
The vote occurred on the 28th day of the federal government shutdown, as both parties remain deadlocked over spending legislation.
Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who spearheaded the resolution, aims to nullify the national emergency declaration Trump used to justify the tariffs.
However, the measure faces virtually insurmountable obstacles in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where leadership has already taken preemptive action to block any attempts to undermine the president’s tariff authority.
Even in the improbable scenario the legislation reaches Trump’s desk, a presidential veto is virtually guaranteed.
The resolution mirrors similar action the Senate took in April targeting Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods.
Kaine delivered a floor speech condemning the administration’s trade approach.
“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,” he said.
He continued his criticism, framing tariffs as a burden on everyday Americans.
“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.”
Congressional Republicans have predominantly avoided challenging the president directly, but Tuesday’s vote exposed underlying frustration with Trump’s tariff policies among some party members.
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Kaine suggested the president pays attention to Republican defections.
“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 told colleagues.
The senator added that he has discovered “the president is responsive to things like this.”
🚨 JUST IN: US Senate votes to TERMINATE President Trump's 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports, 52-48
REPUBLICANS who voted to reverse Trump's actions: Mitch McConnell, Thom Tillis, Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.
Would still need to pass the HOUSE, which isn't… pic.twitter.com/Kgdek7RyLN
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 28, 2025
Among the Republican defectors, McConnell stands out as a particularly significant voice.
The former Senate majority leader has maintained a contentious relationship with Trump spanning several years, particularly regarding trade matters.
McConnell has consistently advocated for free trade principles and maintained skepticism toward protectionist policies, positions that represented mainstream Republican orthodoxy before Trump reshaped the party’s economic philosophy.
“Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive. The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule,” McConnell said in a Tuesday statement. “And no cross-eyed reading of Reagan will reveal otherwise.”
Paul, who serves as the lone Republican co-sponsor of the legislation, offered pointed criticism of Trump’s use of emergency powers to implement the tariffs.
Speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill, he said: “Emergencies are like war, famine, tornado. Not liking someone’s tariffs is not an emergency, it’s an abuse of the emergency power and it is Congress abdicating their traditional role in taxes.”
The Kentucky senator elaborated on the economic impact of tariffs, challenging the notion that they primarily affect foreign nations.
“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,” he noted.
Trump implemented 50 percent tariffs on Brazil, linking them to what he has characterized as a politically motivated prosecution of his far-right ally, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
In July, the president declared a national emergency concerning “recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil,” which he contended represents an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”
Bolsonaro received a conviction in September and a 27-year prison sentence for his role in attempting a military coup in 2022.
Kaine questioned the legitimacy of Trump’s emergency declaration ahead of the vote, accusing the president of attempting an “end-run” around Congress.
“This President has said that their prosecution of a disgraced former politician is a national emergency for the United States. How could that be?” he asked.
“If this is a national emergency for the United States, any president of any party could say that anything is a national emergency for the United States.”
The Virginia senator also highlighted that the United States maintained a trade surplus of nearly $7 billion with Brazil last year, undercutting economic justifications for the tariffs.
Speaking with reporters, Kaine characterized the president’s emergency order as “unusual and extreme,” accusing him of implementing it based on 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 April vote on Canadian tariffs saw four Republicans join Democrats in passing a similar measure.
Those Republicans included Murkowski, Collins and McConnell, along with Paul, who co-sponsored that legislation as well.
Kaine announced plans to force additional votes on Canadian tariffs and global tariffs throughout the week, maintaining pressure on the administration while challenging Senate Republicans to take a stand.
“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?”
Earlier Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance traveled to the Capitol for a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans, urging them to oppose the resolution.
“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.
Following the meeting, Vance defended tariffs as essential tools for negotiating favorable trade agreements while encouraging Republicans to maintain party unity behind the president.
“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.
“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.”
