Republicans in Congress Show Signs of Angst Over Trump’s Trade War

Three times this week, the Senate voted to deny President Trump the power to enforce sweeping tariffs he has imposed since taking office in January, with a few Republicans joining Democrats in votes that reflected growing resistance in his own party to his trade policies.

The action was symbolic, since the measures have little chance of advancing in the House and no chance of being signed into law by Mr. Trump. But behind the scenes, Republicans were pressing for a very real reversal by the president. In a closed-door luncheon with Vice President JD Vance, several of them lobbied for the administration to abandon a plan to increase imports of Argentine beef.

Republicans in Congress have marched in near-lock step with the president’s foreign and domestic policy agenda. But taken together, the votes to end his tariffs and the private confrontation with the vice president indicated growing angst in the G.O.P. over the impact Mr. Trump’s trade agenda is having on constituents.

Mr. Vance had been dispatched to Capitol Hill to urge his former Senate colleagues to vote against the trio of resolutions, all of which would terminate the emergencies Mr. Trump declared to justify levying tariffs on trading partners across the globe.

Instead, the vice president found himself in a heated discussion with Republican senators from major cattle-producing states over the administration’s plan to quadruple the amount of beef from Argentina allowed into the United States each year, at a lower tariff rate. The move is a bid to bring down the cost of beef after prices rose in recent years. But it has enraged ranchers, a key Republican constituency.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, called it a “frank and vigorous conversation,” innocuous words often used by members of Congress to characterize a far more intense and angry discussion.

His fellow Texas Republican, Senator John Cornyn, said that G.O.P. lawmakers “don’t want to advantage any sort of foreign imports over our domestic production or make it unaffordable to American producers.”

He added: “I think the vice president received the message, and I’m sure will deliver it.”

Hours later, a resolution to end Mr. Trump’s 50 percent tariffs on Brazil passed with bipartisan support.

The following evening, the Senate voted 50 to 46 to end some of his tariffs on Canada. And on Thursday, Republicans crossed party lines to help pass a third resolution, 51 to 47, to rescind the president’s global tariff rate on more than 100 trading partners.

The majority of Republicans have said they support Mr. Trump’s trade policies, arguing that even if they cause temporary discomfort, the tariffs will ultimately reshape the global economy to be more fair to American farmers, manufacturers and business owners.

Senator John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican who opposed the resolutions, acknowledged that farmers were “very concerned and having a hard time,” but said that he believed the president’s moves would pay off.

“All along, President Trump has been working to get us better trade deals and more sales for our guys. I think that’s what we’ve been anticipating, and it’s not an easy process,” he added.

But other Republicans say the pain is a clear sign that Mr. Trump’s policy is deeply flawed. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former party leader, voted for all three anti-tariff measures this week, arguing that the president’s trade war had harmed car manufacturers, farmers and bourbon distillers in his state.

“Consumers are paying higher prices across the board as the true costs of trade barriers fall inevitably on them,” he said in a statement.

He added: “Protectionists in Washington insist that the past several months have vindicated the policy of indiscriminate trade war against both close allies and strategic adversaries. But Kentuckians are especially well equipped to sort the bluster from the truth.”

Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who also crossed party lines to back the resolutions, warned in a recent letter to Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, and Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, that Mr. Trump’s 50 percent tariff rate on steel and aluminum had “exacerbated” the challenges facing lobstermen in her state, raising the price of “nearly all equipment that lobstermen use, including traps, clips, rings and hoops.”

Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who sponsored the three tariff resolutions, said the vice president’s trip to Capitol Hill was a sign that the White House knew “that his own side is getting really worried” about the pain the tariffs had caused.

“They don’t send the V.P. up,” Mr. Kaine added, “unless the White House is really worried. The V.P. came up to corral them, which is how the V.P. gets used. And there were still five defectors.”

Those defectors were Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, the sole Republican to sponsor the three measures to end the tariffs, as well as Mr. McConnell, Ms. Collins and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted for all of them.

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina also backed the resolution to scrap the tariffs on Brazil. The United States has a trade surplus with Brazil, and the tariffs the president imposed amounted to political retaliation against the current government for prosecuting Jair Bolsonaro, his ally and the country’s former president, for an attempted coup. Mr. Tillis called the Brazil tariffs “arbitrary” and said they created uncertainty for U.S. manufacturers and consumers.

The Senate’s action came just as Mr. Trump struck a trade agreement with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, that would end a Chinese boycott on American soybeans and other farm products. But the agreement, whose details have yet to be made public and which appeared to involve a relatively small number of soybean purchases, did little to allay the concerns from some Republicans about the potential harm the president’s approach could do to their producers.

The Constitution vests the power to levy taxes in Congress, and “tariffs are taxes,” Mr. Paul said this week, adding that they drove up the cost of everyday goods for Americans.

“These new taxes in the form of tariffs don’t just fail on economics. They fail on the Constitution, and must be reversed,” he said.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments next week on the question of whether the president holds the power to enforce his sweeping tariffs under a law first passed by Congress during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Republicans who voted against the tariff resolutions dismissed them as political attacks on the president. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, said he believed Mr. Trump had acted within the bounds of the laws that Congress had passed over the years that expanded the powers of the presidency, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

“They’re trying to cherry pick a message by saying, ‘We don’t like this tariff. We don’t like that tariff.’ Have they introduced legislation that would change any of the statutes?” Mr. Hawley said.