Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariff

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and other Senate Democrats criticized President Donald Trump's tariffs

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) plans to force two more votes this week: to end Trump’s Canada import taxes and to block his widespread global tariffs

(Image credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo)

What happened

The Senate voted 52-48 Tuesday to quash President Donald Trump’s punitive 50% tariff on Brazilian imports, terminating the national emergency he declared to trigger the import tax. Five Republicans joined every Democrat in supporting the measure.

Who said what

Trump slapped the steep tax on Brazilian coffee, orange juice and other imports because the country’s high court chose to “prosecute Donald Trump’s friend,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), the measure’s sponsor, told reporters. “How is that an emergency?” Emergencies “are like war, famine, tornadoes,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The Brazil tariff is ”an abuse of the emergency power and it’s Congress abdicating their traditional role in taxes.”

The rare bipartisan rebuke of Trump’s signature trade tool came as “the president is in Asia touting tariffs and notching progress on trade agreements,” Politico said. But the vote “remains largely symbolic: Republican leaders in the House have blocked the chamber from voting to overrule the tariffs until March,” and there were not enough Senate votes to overturn a likely Trump veto. Paul told reporters that many of his GOP colleagues privately opposed the tariffs but wouldn’t publicly cross Trump due to “fear.”

What next?

Kaine plans to force two more votes this week: one to end Trump’s Canada import taxes and another to block his widespread global tariffs. The Supreme Court is set to weigh the legality of those broader tariffs next week, and “free-trading Republicans hope the Supreme Court will bail them out,” quashing the tariffs and “defusing what could soon become a brutal internecine fight for Republicans,” Semafor said.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.