Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) distanced himself Wednesday from a bipartisan Senate effort to overturn former President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, calling the move a “political exercise” with no real path forward, according to NBC.
The resolution, backed by all present Democrats and three Republicans — Rand Paul (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — failed in a 49-49 tie vote in the GOP-controlled Senate. It sought to end the national emergency Trump declared to justify his broad tariff regime. Despite his past support for narrower efforts to rein in Trump’s tariff authority, Tillis declined to join this latest push.
Tillis, who is up for re-election next year, has instead thrown his support behind an alternative bipartisan measure spearheaded by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash). That proposal would not immediately end the tariffs but would require Congress to affirmatively approve them within 60 days or see them automatically expire. Tillis has positioned himself as working behind the scenes on that legislation, which he views as more substantive and pragmatic.
“I don’t do messaging bills,” Tillis said, dismissing the Paul-Wyden resolution as symbolic and ineffective. “It has no hope in them in the House.”
His remarks underscore a broader Republican reluctance to directly challenge Trump’s trade agenda, even as concerns mount over economic impacts. On the same day as the vote, the Commerce Department reported a 0.3% contraction in the U.S. economy for the first quarter — a development the Trump White House attempted to downplay.
Despite rising bipartisan unease over the tariffs — and internal GOP divisions — Senate leadership has shown little appetite for directly confronting Trump’s approach. While some, like Tillis, are seeking incremental reforms through legislation like Grassley’s, they remain unwilling to back efforts seen as overt rebukes of the former president.
