The relationship between the Trump White House and the Supreme Court reached a new low Saturday as the president announced a 15% global tariff just hours after the court struck down his previous trade policy, and followed up with some of the most personally vicious attacks on sitting justices seen in modern presidential history.
Trump invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a provision never previously used, to impose the new 15% rate on all imports for up to 150 days before congressional authorization becomes necessary. He declared it effective immediately on Truth Social and framed the move as a legally clean continuation of his America-first trade doctrine.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling Friday had found his IEEPA-based tariffs unconstitutional for lacking congressional approval. Trump was volcanic in his response, calling the ruling “ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American.” He accused the majority justices of being “unpatriotic and disloyal to our constitution,” and singled out his own nominees Barrett and Gorsuch as “an embarrassment to their families.”
Internationally, leaders called for calm and stability. Germany’s Chancellor Merz warned that the American administration’s approach was economically toxic and announced a trip to Washington with a unified European proposal. France’s President Macron celebrated the court’s role in checking executive excess and called for trade reciprocity rather than presidential decree.
American consumers continue to bear the greatest burden of the ongoing trade war, absorbing approximately 90% of the more than $130 billion in tariffs collected under the now-invalidated IEEPA framework. The new 15% rate deepens that burden. Exemptions apply to critical minerals, metals, pharmaceuticals, and USMCA-compliant goods, while sector-specific tariffs on steel, aluminum, lumber, and autos remain intact.
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