The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law when he unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs across the globe, a striking loss for the White House on an issue that has been central to the president’s foreign policy and economic agenda.
Important to note that the ruling just says Trump exceeded his authority in setting the tariffs, not that the tariffs themselves were illegal/unconstitutional. That means that Congress can authorize Trump to continue doing this. The question is whether Mike Johnson and John Thune have the numbers to pass that law. They already both quashed efforts to curb Trump’s authority before.
Any other ruling wouldn’t have made sense. The issue was not about if tariffs are legal, but rather if the President has the authority to unilaterally set them.
I’m not too worried about additional tariffs passing through congress, though. That would have been the safer approach to try from the beginning if Trump’s people thought they could make it work. They opted for this workaround loophole nonsense specifically to go around congress because they had already ruled out the possibility of congressional approval.
I just don’t think Trump could ever manage to get enough support from congress. Certainly not with how unpopular the tariffs currently are, and certainly not right before the midterms.
He absolutely does not have the numbers to get this through congress. Across the aisle repubs and dems are mostly pro-business, pro-trade, and these tariffs don’t make an ounce of sense to any of them. Some GOP goons would vote for it just to make Trump happy, but way too many would rather protect their wealthy donors than protect the President. There’s not a lot of political future in making the Waltons unhappy.
But wouldn’t it be delightful if he actually tried, because that’s the only thing left to do and he can’t possibly give up on the tariffs?
That’s his one signature economic policy. Without tariffs, he’s got nothing. Even though they are unpopular, he still claims they just need more time, you’ll see how marvelous life is going to be when he hands the tariff checks to every household in America.
That’s fine, sort of. Maybe we’re all just traumatized by violating constitution, checks and balances, the rule of law, but I’d welcome the improvement if they were evil legally