Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, ushered in under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, were unlawfully imposed
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, ushered in under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, were unlawfully imposed. Trump had used the act to charge huge levies on countries, including 50% on India, which was later reduced, and 34% on China.
By Friday night, the president posted on Truth Social that he signed an executive order enabling him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world. “It is my Great Honor to have just signed, from the Oval Office, a Global 10% Tariff on all Countries, which will be effective almost immediately,” Trump wrote.
Less than 24 hours later, Trump said he was bumping up the tariffs to 15% “based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday.”
No one knows. This entire thing is a temper tantrum.
He’s apparently applying these tariffs under a different law than the one they used previously, which does explicitly allow the president to apply temporary (150 days) tariffs of up to 15%. So you would assume this is meant to replace the tariffs the SC struck down.
But he’s also stated that the previous tariffs are going to stay in effect, just under a different legal theory. So in his mind, it’s possible that he thinks this 15% is on top of the existing amounts, and he’s literally just tariffing the whole world harder because he’s mad about a decision by his judiciary.
Then again, maybe he’s just a dementia-ridden old idiot who can’t keep his own bullshit straight for more than 30 seconds.