President Donald Trump has suggested that the Supreme Court reconsider its decision on his tariffs.
He said in a social media post that the justices, who recently invalidated the worldwide taxes, might not have thought about the economic benefits other countries could reap at the expense of the U.S. Trump has said that foreign entities exporting goods paid the tariffs — and would therefore be entitled to refunds — but importers actually footed the bill.
“It doesn’t make sense that Countries and Companies that took advantage of us for decades, receiving Billions and Billions of Dollars that they should not have been allowed to receive, would now be entitled to an undeserved ‘windfall,’ the likes of which the World has never seen before, as a result of this highly disappointing, to say the least, ruling,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Is a Rehearing or Readjudication of this case possible???”
The Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 20 that the president exceeded his authority by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law on presidential regulation of international commerce, to impose tariffs. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that Congress alone can set taxes and has maintained its authority to do so despite Trump’s warnings of foreign threats.
“The foreign affairs implications of tariffs do not make it any more likely that Congress would relinquish its tariff power through vague language, or without careful limits,” Roberts said. “Accordingly, the President must ‘point to clear congressional authorization’ to justify his extraordinary assertion of that power.”
Trump has cited threats posed by the flow of illegal drugs from other countries, as well as trade deficits, for his tariffs. He described the situation, as he has with other issues under judicial review, as a matter of national security.
“This was an important case to me more as a symbol of economic national security,” the president said in response to the ruling. “And also I would say just for our country itself, so important because we’re doing so well as a country.”
Many Democrats and some Republicans celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision. Sen. Maggie Hassan, the top Democrat of the Joint Economic Committee, said in a statement that the tariffs were a “disaster” for American families.
“While the Supreme Court has thankfully and correctly ruled that much of Trump’s tariff agenda was an illegal exercise of presidential power, today’s ruling cannot undo the damage that tariffs have already caused,” Hassan said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Monday declined to delay implementation of the Supreme Court tariff ruling and allowed the next steps in processing tariff refunds to begin.
Have questions, concerns or tips? Send them to Ray at rjlewis@sbgtv.com.