Tipsheet

Five Republican Senators Join Democrats to Block Trump’s Tariffs on Brazil

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  October 28, 2025 8:15 PM

Five Senate Republicans voted with Democrats to block President Trump’s emergency authority to impose tariffs on Brazil, which is one of the top exporters of coffee to the United States.

The Republicans who voted with Democrats include Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. The vote was 52-48.

President Trump's tariffs covered imports including coffee, oil, and orange juice. 

Rand Paul, on the floor of the Senate, argued the tariffs were a tax on American consumers and that taxes must originate from the House of Representatives.

McConnell, in a statement, said that the tariffs are hurting Kentucky businesses and farms.

“New trade barriers imposed this year have made it harder to sustain the supply chains that let thousands of Kentuckians build cars and appliances in the Commonwealth. Retaliatory tariffs on American products have turned agricultural income upside down for many of Kentucky’s nearly 70,000 family farms,” he said.

President Trump said he slapped tariffs on Brazil this summer in response to what he called the left-wing government’s unfair prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who received a 27-year prison sentence for allegedly plotting a coup.

The president insists that his tariffs have served as powerful leverage in securing trade deals that benefit the United States. Speaking in Japan on Tuesday, he declared victory, noting that the tariffs have not caused the severe economic fallout many had predicted.