U.S. President Donald Trump secured a significant political win on Wednesday after the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected a resolution aimed at blocking his administration’s sweeping tariff policies and economic reforms.
In a 49-49 vote, the resolution failed to pass in the evenly divided upper chamber, effectively allowing Trump’s controversial trade measures—including a recently announced 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods—to move forward unimpeded.
The vote came just hours after new government data revealed that the U.S. economy had contracted by 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2025, marking the country’s first economic downturn in three years. The figures covered the period before Trump’s most aggressive tariff announcement on April 2.
Despite concerns from economists and lawmakers about the potential for a recession, Trump has repeatedly downplayed the risks, blaming his predecessor, Joe Biden, for the nation’s current economic fragility.
Three Republican senators—Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—broke party ranks to support the resolution, joining all voting Democrats and Independents in an unusual intra-party rebuke.
Senator Paul, a co-sponsor of the measure, said the failed vote still served an important purpose. “It’s a debate worth having. If we see a market crash or another quarter of economic decline, people will start asking, ‘Is this good policy or bad policy?’” he remarked.
The resolution’s defeat grants Trump continued leverage to shape U.S. trade policy through high tariffs and aggressive economic nationalism—key pillars of his administration’s second-term agenda. However, with signs of economic strain emerging, the political and financial consequences of these measures remain uncertain.
