The president of the United States of America has recorded a major win as the US Senate has rejected a bid to block his administration’s tariffs and reforms.
The upper house of the US Congress voted 49-49 to knock back the resolution on Wednesday, hours after government data showed that the US economy shrank for the first time in three years.
Meanwhile, three Republican senators—Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—voted for the measure in a rare rebuke of Trump from within his own party, along with all present Democrats and Independents.
“It’s still a debate worth having, because, you know, if a month from now we have massive tariffs go on, and we have a massive sell-off in the stock market, and we didn’t have a first good quarter in growth, and if it’s worse again in the second quarter, people would start asking, ‘Is it good policy, or is it a bad policy?’” Paul, who co-sponsored the resolution, said of the failed vote.
This comes as President Trump has played down fears that his sweeping tariffs, including a 145 percent duty on China, could tip the US into recession.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Commerce on Wednesday reported that the economy contracted 0.3 percent during the first three months of the year, a period that occurred before Trump imposed his steepest tariffs announcement on April 2, 2025.
DAILY POST reports that Trump blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for the US stock markets.
