Vice President JD Vance joined Senate Republicans Tuesday with a directive: Don’t break with the president.
By evening, five Republicans had broken ranks and joined Democrats to vote to reject the national emergency declaration Trump used to impose 50% tariffs on Brazil.
“Emergencies are like war, famine, tornado,” Sen. Rand Paul told reporters ahead of the vote on the resolution he cosponsored with Democrats. “Not liking someone’s tariffs is not an emergency. It’s an abuse of the emergency power, and it’s Congress abdicating their traditional role in taxes.”
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Sen. Thom Tillis was the latest Republican to vote for the resolution questioning Trump’s emergency powers over tariffs. He said Trump’s executive order imposing the tariffs — which hinged around claims that the country was politically persecuting Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies — lacked “rational basis.”
“Some of this disruption, I think, is good, the president has produced results,” Tillis said. “But all of a sudden, you know, it could have something not to do with business or trade, invoke a 50% tariff, then it creates a big uncertainty for the business community.”
There are two more tariff-related resolutions expected to be voted on this week, including on those levied against Canada and his global tariff policy.
Tuesday’s vote, and Vance’s ask of Senate Republicans, underscores the simmering tensions between Senate Republicans and the White House over Trump’s aggressive trade agenda, which he has acted on without Congress.
Vance told Republicans Tuesday to be patient and that the president is working toward better trade deals, Sen. John Hoeven told reporters of the meeting.
“To vote against that is to strip that incredible leverage for the president of the United States. I think it’s a huge mistake,” Vance told reporters of the resolution as he left the lunch.
The Senate’s resolution is largely symbolic because House Republican leaders have blocked votes challenging Trump’s emergency tariff authority. Still, the outcome does reinforce the agita around Trump’s trade agenda. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer reportedly heard an earful from senators in April, with many Republicans concerned about business interests in their states and the impacts on consumers.
In the spring, four Republicans joined Democrats in backing Sen. Tim Kaine’s first resolution on tariffs with Canada, despite Trump’s legislative aide’s efforts to assuage concerns. Trump rebuked the defectors — Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski — before they voted on the resolution in April.
While Tillis increased their numbers this time, he said tariffs on Brazil were “more of an outlier” and that he plans to vote against the coming resolutions on Canada and global tariffs.
“This didn’t have to do with trade. They have a surplus,” Tillis told NOTUS.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments next week on Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act regarding tariffs.
Those supportive of the president’s trade agenda have acknowledged its challenges.
Sen. Ron Johnson said that while his constituents “hate the pain” of the trade war, they still support what Trump is trying to accomplish.
“A lot of us are concerned about what the tariffs are causing our states,” Johnson told NOTUS. “I don’t want to undermine the president’s negotiating position. I think most of us will respect that.”
Sen. Mike Rounds dismissed the resolutions as partisan gamesmanship.
“They’re all political in nature,” Rounds said. “If they were serious about actually doing something, they’d be doing it in a bipartisan nature, but they’re not. This was designed to try to embarrass the president when he’s overseas.”
Kaine told reporters Tuesday before the vote that he expects more Republicans to join Democrats to vote in favor of the Canada resolution.
“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? Do my colleagues have a gag reflex or not, in terms of powers that constitutionally are handed to Congress?” Kaine asked.
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