The dome of the US Capitol on September 17. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty Images/File

It’s no secret at this point that congressional Republicans are loathe to vote against President Donald Trump. Fealty to Trump has become the animating principle in the party – so much so that GOP lawmakers have willfully relegated themselves to second-class citizens in Washington as they’ve steadily ceded their powers and prerogatives to Trump.

But all of that makes it even more striking when they decide to actually stand up for themselves, for once.

And it’s now happened twice just this week.

Enough Senate Republicans voted against Trump’s tariffs on Brazil and Canada so that a majority of the chamber has now expressed its opposition to both. They did so even after the White House mobilized

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