For several months, President Trump has been vandalizing the global economy and subverting the rules of international trade with his wrecking ball of tariff indiscretions. Finally, someone in Congress is doing something to stop this menace. Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, introduced legislation on Wednesday that takes back some of the authority President Trump has been abusing under the guise of protecting national security.

Mr. Corker, who is retiring, attracted six Republican co-sponsors for the bill, which would amend the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to require the president to get approval from Congress for any tariffs proposed on national security grounds. But the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said he would not allow the legislation to come to the floor as a stand-alone bill. House Speaker Paul Ryan seems similarly uninterested in a bill likely to be vetoed by Mr. Trump. “You would have to pass a law that he would want to sign into law,” Mr. Ryan said. “You can do the math on that.”

Why don’t the president’s trade transgressions elicit meaningful resistance from party leadership? His trade views are disdainful of freedom and informed by economic fallacies, yet Republican leaders have watched quietly from the sidelines as Mr. Trump misappropriates his authorities to disrupt global supply chains, inflict pain on American trade partners, generate enormous amounts of domestic collateral damage and make the United States an international scofflaw.

The United States Constitution vests authority in Congress to collect duties and to “regulate commerce with foreign nations.” But over the course of the 20th century, Congress delegated some of its authority to the president. In most cases, the statutes giving the executive branch the authority to raise tariffs require that certain conditions be met and that any actions taken be subject to limitations, as well as judicial review.