Chicago – April 01, 2025
Vice President JD Vance traveled to Capitol Hill late Wednesday to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate that killed a bipartisan effort to rebuke President Donald Trump’s trade policy.
Earlier in the evening, the Senate rejected the resolution that would have effectively blocked Trump’s global tariffs by revoking the emergency order the president is using to enact them. Two senators who were set to vote for the resolution, Republican Mitch McConnell and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, were absent, allowing the resolution to fail 49-49.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune then moved to ensure that tariff opponents were unable to bring their resolution back up at a later date, forcing Vance to the US Capitol to put an end to the matter. It marked just the second time the vice president has used his tie-breaking authority.
In his second term, Trump has placed historic tariffs on a wide variety of imports. He’s put a 10% tariff on virtually everything coming into the United States; imposed 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos and many items from Mexico and Canada; and placed a tariff of at least 145% on most Chinese goods imported to the US in by far the most significant trade action to date.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who cosponsored the resolution to block the tariffs, argued that Vance having to break the tie worked in the resolution-backers’ favor.
