Trump launches extraordinary attack on the Supreme Court after tariff loss: ‘Disgrace to our nation’
Donald Trump fired back at the conservative-majority Supreme Court for striking down most of his tariffs on Friday.
In an emergency press conference after the decision was announced on Friday, he called the US’s highest court “an embarrassment to our nation.”
Trump threatened that he had ‘strong alternatives’ to the tariffs, which he claimed would enable the US to ‘get more money’.
‘We have alternatives,’ he insisted. ‘Great alternatives; ‘There could be more money, we get more money and we’re much stronger for it.’
Three conservative justices joined all three liberals on the panel to rule against Trump on Friday.
Despite the court’s 6-3 tilt to the right, two Trump appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, ruled against him. Meanwhile, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s third appointee, also wrote the dissent.
‘The Supreme Court’s decision on tariffs is deeply disappointing and I am ashamed of some of the members of the Court. “I am absolutely ashamed that I did not have the courage to do what was right for our country,” the president said at the press conference.
The president was in a meeting with members of the National Governors Association when the decision was announced.
Wall Street celebrated the stock market rally resulting from the tariff decision when Trump ripped up the decision.
In a 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said Trump did not have the authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
President Donald Trump took a sarcastic tone as he ripped through the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court after ruling against his tariffs on Friday.
Trump used the law as a legal basis for his widespread tariff policy, which he boasted would enrich the country.
An estimated $175 billion in tariff revenue is at stake, according to the Penn-Wharton Budget Model, Reuters reported.
Celebrating ‘Independence Day’ on April 2, he announced that reciprocal customs duties would be imposed on nations around the world, even on uninhabited islands.
The president used the justification that there was a national emergency due to trade deficits and national security threats.
When he took office last year, he imposed tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China due to fentanyl leakage into the United States.
Trump has also used tariffs to threaten other countries, such as postponing a 25 percent tariff on Indian imports because the country continues to buy Russian oil.
But Roberts, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, wrote in the resolution that if Congress had intended to give the President ‘a separate and extraordinary authority to impose tariffs, it would have done so expressly, as has been consistently the case with other tariff laws.’
The Chief Justice said that ‘the president must ‘point to the express authorization of Congress’ to justify his extraordinary claim to the power to impose tariffs.’
“He can’t,” Roberts said.
President Donald Trump holds the list of reciprocal tariffs imposed on ‘Independence Day’ on April 2
Traders are on the ground Friday as the Supreme Court rules against President Donald Trump’s widespread tariff policy
For months, Trump openly pushed the Supreme Court to rule in his favor, even flirting with coming to the Courtrooms to watch oral arguments.
“If we don’t win this case, we will be in a weakened, distressed financial mess for many years to come,” Trump said in October. ‘I don’t even know if it’s possible to survive. That’s why I’m thinking of going to the Supreme Court to watch it. I didn’t do this. And I’ve had some pretty big cases.’
Trump did not review oral arguments, which critics argued could raise constitutional questions about the separation of powers.
But the President had the advantage of the conservative majority by appointing three Supreme Court Justices in his first term, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
President Donald Trump was entertaining members of the National Governors Association when the Supreme Court’s tariff decision was announced. He had already kicked out members of the press, and via CNN reported that he reacted by calling the decision a ‘disgrace’.
Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch (top left) joined the Court’s liberal wing in ruling against President Donald Trump. Trump appointee Judge Brett Kavanaugh (second from right) wrote the dissenting opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts (center, first row) wrote the decision
Despite the court’s 6-3 tilt to the right, Gorsuch and Barrett ruled against the President on Friday, with Kavanaugh penning the dissent.
Joined by conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, Kavanaugh suggested Trump could use a different law to push his tariff agenda.
“In fact, the Court concluded today that the President checked the wrong legal box by relying on IEEPA rather than another law to impose these tariffs,” Kavanaugh wrote.
The decision also stated that Trump could request permission from Congress.
Trump still holds Republican majorities in the House and Senate ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Still, he would likely need to strike a deal with Senate Democrats to enact any tariff legislation.
While the court gave the administration these avenues to explore, the decision did not address the issue of how tariff refunds would be handled.
This fight will likely play out in the lower courts.
