The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on Friday invalidating many of the tariffs imposed by President Trump had wide-ranging economic, constitutional and political ramifications, and drew a scathing response from Mr. Trump.
It was a big loss for the president.
The 6-3 ruling by the justices was a stinging defeat for Mr. Trump and a relatively rare instance of the court imposing a check on efforts in his second term to expand presidential power. Mr. Trump had repeatedly cast the tariffs as essential to his agenda, and his loss at the court will affect not only trade but his entire economic and foreign policy approach — he has repeatedly used tariffs, and the threat of them, to bludgeon both adversaries and allies.
Mr. Trump reacted with fury, assailing the justices who voted against the administration’s position as “fools and lap dogs,” and suggesting that they had bowed to foreign influence. But he quickly made plans to impose new rounds of tariffs using other mechanisms that are still available to him, though he will do so subject to much tighter constraints on his power.
WHAT DOES THIS RULING REALLY SAY?
Six justices agreed on these basic principles (and little else): 1) tariffs are taxes, 2) the power to tax is the power to destroy and that power belongs to Congress not the president, and 3) if the president is going to impose tariffs, then that only happens when Congress gives the president that specific power.
In other words, the Supremes just restated the separation of powers idea that lies at the heart of our democracy. Power is divided among executive, legislative and judicial branches. That acts as a check and balance on presidential power to keep the president from engaging in power grabs. Limitations on presidential power is foundational in our Constitution. The president is not supposed to be a dictator and have all the power for himself.
WHAT DOES THIS RULING DO?
The Supremes, at least on paper, just took away Trump’s favorite tool–his power to use tariffs as a whip and a reward. Trump has been playing mob boss/ king of the world, using tariffs to force countries into doing his bidding, fear his power, make deals he wants and also pay him off with gifts that are part of his ongoing massive corruption as grifter-in-chief. Countries being hit with Trump’s tariffs came to him on bended knee and offered gifts to him to go easy on them.
The Supremes told Trump “Congress has the tariff power” and “The IEEPA statute you relied on for almost all of the tariffs you imposed since the start of your second term doesn’t even give you the ability to impose tariffs at all. Most of your tariffs are unconstitutional and illegal.”
Trump did not take that lying down, however. He responded by having a tantrum, attacking the justices who did this to him- calling them names, saying they don’t know the constitution like he does. He rebelled against the Court ruling by decreeing that there WILL be 10% tariffs across the board under another law. Then, after a brief pause, he ramped up the tariffs to 15% across the board. So, there !!
WHAT DID TRUMP’S TARIFF TANTRUM DO TO THE U.S.?
By reinstating tariff uncertainty, Trump continued the global fall of the value of the dollar and undermined whatever trust might have remained with our trade partners. These newly imposed tariffs are limited to 150 days. After that they end. Any country considering a project in the United States will now put that project on hold until these new tariffs expire.
HOW REPUBLICANS COULD HELP THEMSELVES IN THE MIDTERMS
This decision by the Supremes also threw congressional Republicans a lifeline. They threw it to Trump too but he didn’t take it. Trump could have backed off of his obsession with tariffs and blamed the Court for keeping America from the “golden age” he had promised the country. He could have said – if it weren’t for the Supreme Court my tariffs would have made America great. It’s all their fault that the economy is doing so badly.
(No, man, it’s your fault!- Highest deficit in recent history, growth has slowed to a crawl. Americans are actually telling pollsters they yearn for Joe Biden’s economy these days. Your approvals are lower than ever especially with Independent voters at -47% and the stock market down 814 points.)
Republicans in the House are clinging for dear life with a teeny tiny majority. They can see the polls for themselves. They know how unpopular this administration is. More important, they can see how energized the voters are to elect Democrats despite the Democratic brand still being in the toilet. Just look at all the special elections where the Dems outperform the Rs by around 10 points in districts Trump won with large margins.
This decision by the Supremes could help Republicans in the midterm election. The American people have figured out that tariffs are taxes on THEM and are telling their representatives to cut it out. This could be a win for Congressional Republicans if they vote to reject Trump’s new tariffs.
Will congressional Republicans take the liferaft they just got from the Supremes and use it to save themselves from the coming blue tsunami? Maybe. Once we are past the primaries. Most MAGA Republicans know they will be elected in their districts once they are on the ballot for the midterms. At that point we might see Republicans distance themselves from Trump as he continues to tank in the polls, which he will do because he can’t help himself.
Trump has surrounded himself with people who don’t tell him the truth, like most self-centered autocrats do. He thinks he is winning when he is losing. By-the-way, that’s how most autocrats f–k themselves. Because even the most strident dictators need to have a significant portion of the populace behind them if they hope to be successful with their power grab.
Trump’s MAGA dictatorship may fail because right now he is deeply unpopular with the American people, his cabinet members are inept and the Dems are actually figuring out how to fight back more effectively. Instead of thinking that congressional hearings are actually exercises in oversight, Democrats have learned that hearings are opportunities to troll and attack the Republicans. Our country was taken over in what is called a “soft coup” (no military), but this is war nonetheless, and the Dems are finally in the fight.
WHAT IS COMING NEXT FROM THE SUPREMES
I also wonder if the Supremes might be giving Trump this bad decision because they are about to kill Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act which is what Trump would consider a really great birthday present for himself and his MAGA party. Why? If the Supremes kill Section 2 of the VRA, states would no longer have to take race into consideration in their redistricting decisions. That will set off a lot of last minute gerrymandering in southern states to create what they hope will be Republican districts. Republicans might be able to get about 19 more Republican districts. But they might also spread the jam too thin and those new Republican districts just might surprise them by voting to elect Democrats as motivated independent voters join Dems and get to the polls and disheartened Republicans stay home.
If the Supremes do kill off section 2 of the VRA, the Supremes would be directly boosting the Republicans in their attempt to keep the House majority, which also helps Trump to avoid impeachment and prosecution and could deepen the hold that Trump as unitary executive (dictator) has over the country.
WHAT THE DEMS ARE HOPING FOR
The Dems are hoping and praying that the MAGAs cling to Trump and his cabinet of inept people as they drag all of us down into the fever swamps of Trump’s worsening dementia-inspired decisions:
- Assaulting, arresting, and murdering American citizens in their immigration raids
- Building massive concentration camps to house immigrants and then maybe more of Trump’s enemies over time
- Enraging the MAHA Moms who voted for Trump to make America healthy again and didn’t think he would deregulate glyphosate (the herbicide toxin in Roundup that kills people), deregulate mercury, and focus on pleasing companies that manufacture these products instead of regulating these products.
- His wars on Venezuela, Cuba, Iran (coming?), and his weird obession with Greenland
- His tariffs that are not only taxes on Americans, but reshape trade to Make America Globally Isolated
I could go on and on with Trump’s bad policies and decisions. Trump continues to help the Democrats win back the House and Senate with almost every move he makes. The proof is his steadily tanking poll numbers.
The hope for the Dems would be that the blue tsunami (blue mega wave) coming would overcome those additional Republican districts and not be overwhelmed by the dirty tricks the Republicans are already working on to steal the election if they cannot win outright- ie suppressing the vote, trying to pass the SAVE Act, purging voter rolls, stationing ICE at key polling places to scare voters, messing with the post office so ballots arrive too late to be counted etc and if all else fails, claiming fraud in every close district where Dems narrowly win and insisting that MAGA Mike has the constitutional authority, no MANDATE! to seat the winner in each contested district. They tried this in 2020, remember? MAGA Mike would, of course, seat only Republicans in those so called “contested” districts.
BRACE YOURSELF
We are in for a wild ride in the next months before the 2026 election. We need to keep our eye on the ball. We not only can but we really must help get the right outcome. How?
1) We can help to get out the vote especially in districts that will be close and could be contested. Those are the ones MAGA Mike will falsely say were fraudulent so that he can seat the Republican instead of the Democrat when the Democrat actually narrowly won the election. What we can do is canvass, knock on doors to encourage and remind likely Democrats to vote no matter how hard it may be to do that this November. You could join Indivisible to help with that effort.
2) We need to support groups like Marc Elias’ Democracy Docket and Norm Eisen’s Democracy Defenders Action so that their teams can sue to fight against the dirty tricks that are coming from the MAGAs.
3) We need to urge our Attorneys General and our secretaries of state and state houses to pass protective laws and take protective actions in advance of ICE and border patrol showing up at our polling places. Criminal acts by federal agents must be prosecuted by states attorneys! If our elected officials are already doing that work we should thank them and support them for being proactive.
The next election will determine the future of our country for decades to come. The MAGAs could “win” by cheating even though they are not popular and are losing. What does a cheater do when his back is up against the wall? What do they do in the circus when something goes wrong? They send in the clowns to distract the audience. Something has gone very wrong with this circus and the clowns are everywhere.