At a rally in Georgia on Thursday night, President Trump declared that he couldn’t wait ‘forever’ for the Supreme Court to rule on the legitimacy of his sweeping tariff policy. Whether or not it was listening to his complaint, forever arrived today as the court handed Trump a thumping defeat. It struck a blow not only for fiscal but also political sanity.
The language of the ruling was as lapidary as it was persuasive. ‘President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope,’ Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 6-3 opinion. ‘In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it.’ When he declared ‘Liberation Day’ last April and proclaimed sweeping import duties, Trump pointed to the 1977 Emergency Economic Powers Act. But the act formed a flimsy basis for saddling American businesses and consumers with what amounted to a bill of goods. The only emergency was the harm that Trump was needlessly inflicting upon the American economy.
His claims that the tariffs would lower the trade deficit turned out to be bogus. In 2025, the US ran one of its biggest trade deficits in the last half-century – $901 billion. Whether the trade deficit should even be such a source of preoccupation for Trump is also a pertinent matter. He has essentially trashed the value of the dollar in his zeal to render America exports cheaper, a move, incidentally, that is inflationary since it raises the cost of imported goods.
Trump’s misbegotten trade policies have also had injurious effects upon America’s foreign relations. He has wielded them, more often than not, in a fit of pique. He put tariffs on Switzerland because he didn’t like the tone of voice that country’s leader took with him. After a Swiss delegation of businessmen visited Trump, plying him with trinkets, including a Rolex watch, he backed off. What kind of way is that to steward America’s national interests?
Above all there is the fact that free trade has always benefitted nations. Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage remains as salient as ever. Trump’s obsession with propping up a few failing industries at the expense of everyone else merely proves the point. Chasing chimeras is not good economic policy. The bottom line remains that government intrusion upon the free enterprise system is bound to prove inimical to prosperity and liberty.
For its part, the Supreme Court stuck to the constitutionality of the tariffs, noting that a president cannot simply impose them by executive fiat. ‘Whenever Congress intends to delegate to the president the authority to impose tariffs, it does so explicitly,’ the court ruled. Quite right.
Trump was imposing what was a stealth value added tax upon Americans. He will attempt to impose fresh tariffs, but he has been deprived of his principal weapon. He can’t say he wasn’t warned. His trade representative, Jamieson Greer, as the New York Times recently reported, was less than confident about the ability of Trump’s reliance on emergency powers to withstand a legal challenge. Now Trump has suffered a smackdown from the Supreme Court. It has liberated Americans from the false promise of Trump’s vaunted Liberation Day.
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