'The dam is breaking': 6 Republicans defy Trump in vote to strike down key policy

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives just voted to pass a resolution to end President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada by a narrow majority, with several Republicans joining all Democrats (save for one) for a 219-211 vote.

On Wednesday, Aaron Fritschner — who is deputy chief of staff to Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) — confirmed the legislation's passage. Every Democrat voted for the resolution except for Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who is not running for reelection in November. Six Republicans also voted in favor, with Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.), Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) joining 213 Democrats. One Bluesky user celebrated the news by declaring: "The dam is breaking."

"[A] few congressional Republican zombies rise up at least momentarily from the self-imposed death of Trump-submission," the New Yorker's Philip Gourevitch posted to Bluesky.

"In his first term, tariffs were one of the few areas where Congressional Rs were willing to push back on Trump," Florida State University political scientist Sean Ehrlich wrote. "Took them awhile and it’s only a small handful of them so far, but it looks like they’re starting to do so again.

"This vote should have been unanimous, but 211 Republicans chose Trump over the Constitution and the rightful tariff authority it gives them," anti-Trump Republican Dave Hale wrote on X. "God bless the 6 Republicans who chose country over party."

Those six Republicans' votes came despite Trump threatening GOP lawmakers in a Wednesday evening post to his Truth Social account. The president warned that any House or Senate Republican who voted against his tariffs "will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time."

"TARIFFS have given us Great National Security because the mere mention of the word has Countries agreeing to our strongest wishes," Trump wrote in his signature style of oddly placed capital letters. "TARIFFS have given us Economic and National Security, and no Republican should be responsible for destroying this privilege."

The resolution now heads to the U.S. Senate. While it could technically pass with a simple majority (meaning all 47 Democrats would need four Republican defections), Trump is likely to veto it. Trump being able to veto a Congressional resolution in which Congress exercises its authority to take back powers delegated by the Constitution normally wouldn't be subjected to a veto were it not for the Supreme Court's 1983 I.N.S. v. Chadha decision.

According to New York University law professor Richard H. Pildes, that decision "decimated the policy scheme Congress had created for overseeing the president’s declaration of emergency powers." Previously, Congress was able to rescind presidential emergencies (like the kind Trump declared to impose tariffs) through a concurrent resolution thanks to the National Emergencies Act of 1976 (which was passed in the post-Watergate era). However, the Chadha decision declared all legislative vetoes unconstitutional, and declared Congress must pass an entirely new law in order to undo presidential emergency declarations.

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