Senate votes to block tariffs on Brazil. It shows some pushback to Trump
trade policy
[October 29, 2025]
By STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate approved a resolution Tuesday evening that
would nullify President Donald Trump's tariffs on Brazil, including oil,
coffee and orange juice, as Democrats tested GOP senators' support for
Trump's trade policy.
The legislation from Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, passed on a
52-48 tally.
It would terminate the national emergencies that Trump has declared to
justify 50% tariffs on Brazil, but the legislation is likely doomed
because the Republican-controlled House has passed new rules that allow
leadership to prevent it from ever coming up for a vote. Trump would
almost certainly veto the legislation even if it were to pass Congress.
Still, the vote demonstrated some pushback in GOP ranks 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 — all voted in favor of the resolution
along with every Democrat.
Kaine said the votes are a way force a conversation in the Senate about
“the economic destruction of tariffs.” He's planning to call up similar
resolutions applying to Trump's tariffs on Canada and other nations
later this week.
“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?” Kaine told
reporters.
Trump has linked the tariffs on Brazil to the country's policies and
criminal prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The U.S. ran a
$6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year, according to the
Census Bureau.
“Every American who wakes up in the morning to get a cup of java is
paying a price for Donald Trump’s reckless, ridiculous, and almost
childish tariffs,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New
York.
Republicans have also been increasingly uneasy with Trump's aggressive
trade policy, especially at a time of turmoil for the economy. The
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said last month that Trump’s
tariff policy is one of several factors that are expected to increase
jobless rates and inflation and lower overall growth this year.
In April, four Republicans voted with Democrats to block tariffs on
Canada, but the bill was never taken up in the House. Kaine said he
hoped the votes this week showed how Republican opposition to Trump's
trade policy is growing.
To bring up the votes, Kaine has invoked a decades-old law that allows
Congress to block a president’s emergency powers and members of the
minority party to force votes on the resolutions.
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Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., meets with reporters to discuss President
Donald Trump's strategy on tariffs, at the Capitol in Washington,
Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
However, Vice President JD Vance visited a Republican luncheon on
Tuesday in part to emphasize to Republicans that they should allow
the president to negotiate trade deals. Vance told reporters
afterwards that Trump is using tariffs "to give American workers and
American farmers a better deal.”
“To vote against that is to strip that incredible leverage from the
president of the United States. I think it’s a huge mistake," he
added.
The Supreme Court will also soon consider a case challenging Trump's
authority to implement sweeping tariffs. Lower courts have found
most of his tariffs illegal.
But some Republicans said they would wait until the outcome of that
case before voting to cross the president.
“I don’t see a need to do that right now,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, a
North Dakota Republican, adding that it was “bad timing” to call up
the resolutions before the Supreme Court case.
Others said they are ready to show opposition to the president's
tariffs and the emergency declarations he has used to justify them.
“Tariffs make both building and buying in America more expensive, “
said Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former longtime Republican leader, in
a statement. ”The economic harms of trade wars are not the exception
to history, but the rule."
His fellow Kentuckian, Republican Sen. Rand Paul, told reporters,
“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’s Congress abdicating their traditional role in taxes.”
In a floor speech, he added, “No taxation without representation is
embedded in our Constitution.”
Meanwhile, Kaine is also planning to call up a resolution that would
put a check on Trump's ability to carry out military strikes against
Venezuela as the U.S. military steps up its presence and action in
the region.
He said that it allows Democrats to get off the defensive while they
are in the minority and instead force votes on “points of
discomfort” for Republicans.
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