On Oct. 28, 2025, a bipartisan resolution passed where senators voted 52-48 on the issue regarding the termination of President Donald Trump’s Brazilian tariffs. It is part of a series of resolutions the Senate has recently passed in an effort to challenge Trump’s tariffs, including those imposed on Canada.
Among the senators were Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as well as Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky. The 50 percent tariff on the majority of Brazilian goods was a national emergency declaration enacted by Trump to pressure the Brazilian government to end the “witch hunt” against his former ally, Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro is a former Brazilian president who was sentenced last month to 27 years in prison for his attempted coup to stay in power after his electoral defeat in 2022. Trump’s official White House report statement claimed that the Brazilian government has “unjustly charged Bolsonaro with multiple crimes related to Bolsonaro’s 2022 runoff election,” and that these are “unjustified criminal charges.”
The vote came after the tariffs began to negatively impact farmers and small businesses. Oregon’s Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has reported how his counterparts are going to their home states and “they just feel like they’re getting hit by a trade wrecking ball” because of their constituents reporting how the tariffs are “killing” them with the increasing prices in grocery stores. He also points out how “red states in rural areas are being hit the hardest.”
Paul, who voted alongside Democrats to end the Brazilian tariffs, has expressed frustration with the President’s national emergency. Paul emphasized how “war, famine, [and] tornadoes” count as emergencies, but Trump’s course of action is an “abuse of the emergency power.”
