By a vote of 52 to 48, the Senate approved a measure that would roll back the 50% tariffs on Brazil imposed by President Trump in July. Five Republicans joined with Democrats to pass it: Susan Collins of Maine, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Kentucky's Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.
The success of the resolution, which needed just a simple majority to pass, may only prove symbolic. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is unlikely to bring the measure up for a vote in the House, and even if he did President Trump would almost certainly veto it.
The vote wasn't the first time Senate Republicans have broken with Trump on tariffs. In April, a measure to block tariffs on Canada drew a simple majority of the Republican-led Senate as a handful of G.O.P senators joined Democrats to push the measure across the finish line. Kaine and Paul co-sponsored the measure, and McConnell, Collins and Murkowski voted in favor.
That the vote may merely be symbolic is only secondarily significant; more worrying for Trump should be the fact that even a few members of his own party are willing to break ranks with his heedless tariff policies. Surely a greater rift is possible?
On another front, it appears that the American public is not entirely behind Trump's treatment of Canada.
Donald Trump, no fan of CNN, likely wasn’t watching on Monday when the network’s poll expert ripped into the president for his tariff tantrum with Canada — and revealed how much damage it could be doing to him.
Back last November, [Harry] Enten said, a slight majority of Americans — 52 per cent — were in favour of tariffs. Now, 60 per cent are telling the pollsters they oppose new tariffs.
Enten then went on to compare how Americans feel about Trump to how they feel about Canada. The president is definitely in a popularity slump, Enten said, while Canada is not.
“The net popularity rating of Canada is plus 49 percentage points,” Enten said. “Look at the net popularity rating of Donald Trump here in the United States. It’s minus 10. We’re talking about Canada coming out nearly 60 points ahead on the net popularity rating.”
Of course, any news that Trump doesn't like he automatically mislabels as fake news. We can only hope momentum builds to the point where even the mad king cannot ignore the battering at his gates.
UPDATE: This from Global News:
The U.S. Senate passed legislation Wednesday that would nullify U.S. tariffs on Canada, just as U.S. President Donald Trump is engaged in trade talks in Asia as well as an increasingly bitter trade spat with U.S.’s northern neighbor that is one of its largest economic partners.
The 50-46 tally was the latest in a series of votes this week to terminate the national emergencies that Trump has used to impose tariffs.
While the resolutions won’t ultimately take effect, they have proven to be an effective way for Democrats to expose cracks between the president’s trade policy and Republican senators who have traditionally supported free trade arguments.
