Trump insults the Supreme Court judges and prepares a “plan B” for his tariffs: “We have powerful alternatives”

In any case, the Republican has assured that “he doesn’t care about the sentence,” since the “tariffs are going to continue” because he has “very powerful alternatives.”

He pointed out that with this ruling, countries that “have scammed the United States for years” are celebrating with, he assured, “many people dancing in their streets,” just like the Democratic Party.

The Supreme Court dealt a severe setback to the Republican by annulling this Friday much of its global tariffs.

The high court concluded that Trump exceeded his authority by approving such commercial liens under the legal parapet of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977. Something for which it has no inherent powers in times of peace.

The US Constitution grants Congress, not to the president, the authority to impose taxes and duties. However, the Republican resorted and invoked the IEEPA to impose tariffs on almost all of the United States’ trading partners, bypassing Congress.

The ruling was known while Trump He was holding a breakfast with the governors at the White House. According to the CNNthe Republican reacted by calling it “shame” the sentence, although he assured those present that has a “plan B”.

In that sense, the Trump Administration already advanced its plan on January 19 in case the Supreme Court annuls the levies. In an interview at New York Times, Jamieson Greer, US trade representative, assured that the President would enact new tariffs almost immediately after the ruling.

The ruling closes the door for the president to use the IEEPA to impose broad and general tariffs on the grounds of a national economic emergency, restricting this instrument to traditional uses such as financial sanctions or blocking of goods.

The sentence However, it does not prevent Trump from resorting to other existing legal frameworks to set taxessuch as national security provisions or retaliation measures against unfair trade practices.

The resolution does not clarify, however, What will happen to the money that the Administration has already collected through the canceled tariffs.

The failure now open the door to a complex legal battle in which thousands of companies affected by the rise in import prices could claim refunds.

The Supreme Court’s decision came after a lawsuit filed by companies affected by the tariffs and 12 US states, most of them governed by Democrats, against Trump’s unprecedented use of this law to unilaterally impose taxes on imports.

Tariffs, Trump’s political weapon

Trump appealed to up to two national emergencies to impose these levies, making them a key economic and foreign policy tool of his Administration.

On April 2, a date that Trump named Liberation Day, the president announced what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on imported goods from most of the United States’ trading partners, invoking the IEEPA to address what it called a national emergency related to country’s trade deficits, which, in their opinion, weakened supply chains and their autonomy. He ignored that Washington has been carrying trade deficits for decades.

In February and March 2025, Trump also invoked the IEEPA to impose 25% tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico to address a national emergency due to trafficking and illegal drugs to the United States as a national emergency.

Since then, the Republican has used his tariffs to obtain concessions and negotiate trade agreements, and as political weapon to punish countries for non-trade political issues.

These latest cases include the prosecution of the former president Jair Bolsonaro on the part of Brazil, the Russian oil purchases by India that help finance Russia’s war in Ukraine, and a anti-tariff announcement from the Canadian province of Ontario.

However, the tariffs on steel, aluminum or other additional levies adopted under trade and security laws other than the IEEPA.

News in update

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