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The House of Representatives has rejected a rule pushed by Republican leaders to prevent votes challenging Donald Trump’s tariffs, in a significant rebuke of the president and his allies in Congress.

The measure proposed by Mike Johnson, the House speaker, was defeated on Tuesday with 217 lawmakers voting against it, including all Democrats and three Republican dissidents, while 214 lawmakers approved.

The votes suggest lawmakers on Capitol Hill are increasingly prepared to challenge President Trump’s aggressive trade agenda, which has disrupted global commerce and threatened price rises in the US.

The failure of the rule to protect Trump’s tariffs from congressional opposition could pave the way for Democratic lawmakers, led by New York congressman Gregory Meeks, to force a vote as soon as Wednesday on a resolution blocking Trump’s tariffs on Canada. 

While Trump could veto any votes by Congress against his tariffs, a rebuke from Republican lawmakers nevertheless sends a strong signal about growing discontent within the president’s party over his economic policies.

Republicans control the House of Representatives by a razor-thin margin, meaning Johnson can only lose the support of a handful of party members in any contentious vote, assuming no Democrats cross party lines and vote with the Republicans.

Thomas Massie of Kentucky, California’s Kevin Kiley and Don Bacon of Nebraska, were the three decisive Republican votes.

Johnson earlier on Tuesday told reporters the “rationale” for the rule was to “allow the Supreme Court to rule on the pending case that everybody is watching and waiting for”.

“The president’s trade policies have been a great benefit to the country,” Johnson added. “The sentiment is that we allow a little bit more runway for this to be worked out between the executive branch and the judicial branch.”

The US Supreme Court is expected to rule on the legality of Trump’s sweeping tariffs in the coming months.

The court in November heard arguments over whether the US president had the authority to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose levies around the world.

Congress has historically claimed the authority to regulate foreign commerce and levy taxes. No previous president has used IEEPA to impose tariffs.

In an interview with Fox Business that aired on Tuesday, Trump said: “I just hope the Supreme Court does what is right for the country.”

Democrats expressed that the proposal to block tariff votes had failed. “It is heartening that a handful of Republicans finally stood up to Trump to put a stop to this madness,” said Don Beyer, a House Democrat from Virginia.

“I hope that more of our colleagues will join them as we move on to consider measures to terminate tariffs on Canada and other key allies and trading partners,” he added.

In a speech on the House floor on Tuesday, Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republican lawmakers of acting “like nothing more than a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda”.

Pew polling published this week showed the vast majority of Americans against the Trump administration’s tariff regime. According to Pew, 60 per cent of US adults disapproved of the increase in tariffs, including more than a quarter of Republicans.