GOP defectors help Senate advance resolution to cancel Trump tariffs despite White House veto warning

A Democrat-led resolution undoing President Donald Trump's tariffs against Canada advanced past the Senate on Wednesday after multiple Republicans joined their counterparts in support of it. 

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky supported the resolution, bucking the president to do so. The final vote was 51 to 48. 

"As I have always warned, tariffs are bad policy, and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most. Tariffs drive up the cost of goods and services," former GOP Senate leader McConnell said in a statement afterward. 

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Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso slammed the resolution's passage, saying in a statement, "Senator Kaine’s goal was not to make law. It was simply an effort to undermine President Trump’s successful work to secure the Northern Border."

 "Speaker Johnson already declared Senator Kaine’s resolution dead on arrival in the House of Representatives. It will never make it to President Trump’s desk," he explained. "This meaningless messaging resolution will not stop Senate Republicans from making America’s communities safer."

The privileged resolution was introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and would end the emergency Trump declared at the northern border on Feb. 1. 

In a statement of administrative policy ahead of the vote, Trump's White House said his advisors would urge the president to veto the resolution if it passed the Senate. 

"President Trump promised to secure our borders and stop the scourge of fentanyl that’s poisoning our communities, and he’s delivering. Democrat Senator Tim Kaine is trying to undermine the President’s Emergency Declaration at our Northern Borders—a measure that prioritizes our national security—for reasons that defy logic," a White House official told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement on Tuesday.

"Under Joe Biden’s failed leadership, criminal networks, fentanyl, and terrorists ran rampant along the northern border. Today’s stunt by Tim Kaine proves once again how woefully out of touch the Democrat Party is with the American people as they use a matter of national security for political gamesmanship. The stakes are too high to reverse course; the declaration must stay in place," they continued. 

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Kaine pushed back, telling Fox News Digital in a statement, "The Trump Administration’s own threat assessment report on fentanyl did not mention Canada—not even once. Trump’s order is a blatant abuse of his authority, and it is critical that Congress push back before he inflicts even more damage to our economy and to the relationship with one of our top trading partners and closest allies."

The resolution was required to be brought to the floor for a vote, due to its privileged nature, and it only required a simple majority vote of 51 senators to pass.

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Trump took to Truth Social on Wednesday to call out multiple Republicans he warned against voting in favor of the resolution.

"Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy," he said in a post. 

Collins revealed in floor remarks earlier in the day that she would vote in favor of the resolution.

"Mr. President, the price hikes that will happen for Maine families, every time they go to the grocery store, they fill their gas tank, they filled their heating oil tank, if these tariffs go into effect, will be so harmful. And as price hikes always do, they will hurt those the most who can afford them the least. Therefore, I will support this resolution, and I urge my colleagues to do so likewise," she said. 

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Paul has been a vocal critic of tariffs during his entire tenure, including during the Trump administration. He is a co-sponsor of the Kaine resolution. 

He told reporters before the vote, "I think tariffs on trade between US and Canada will threaten our country with a recession. I think they're a terrible idea economically and will lead to higher prices. Tariffs are simply taxes. Republicans used to be and conservatives, in particular, used to be against new taxes."