Trump Lashes Out At 'Fools And Lapdogs' After Supreme Court Blocks Tariff Plan
In the White House on Friday, Donald Trump did not sound like a president absorbing a legal defeat so much as a man picking a fight with the referee. He waved off a Supreme Court rebuke and branded six justices, including two he appointed, as 'fools and lapdogs' while insisting his tariff drive would keep moving.It helps, before the noise takes over, to hold on to a few plain facts. The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that a key emergency statute does not let Trump impose sweeping tariffs. Trump responded by attacking the justices in public. Within hours, he announced a fresh tariff move using a different trade law.
Donald Trump And The Limits Of Emergency PowerThe ruling, in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump and a consolidated case, turned on a basic question the Court framed without ornament, whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, better known as IEEPA, authorises a president to impose tariffs. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the Court, said it does not.The opinion recounts that shortly after taking office, Trump declared emergencies tied to drug flows from Canada, Mexico, and China, as well as 'large and persistent' trade deficits, then used IEEPA as the engine for import taxes. The Court noted tariffs of 25 percent on most Canadian and Mexican imports and 10 percent on most Chinese imports, alongside 'reciprocal' tariffs of at least 10 percent on imports from all trading partners, with higher rates for dozens of nations.Roberts grounded the decision in separation of powers and history, reminding readers that the Constitution gives Congress the power to levy duties and that the executive branch has no inherent peacetime authority to impose tariffs. He also wrote that Trump's interpretation would amount to a vast delegation hidden inside ordinary language, concluding the president must 'point to clear congressional authorization' and adding, 'He cannot.'Trump's answer was not subtle. At a press conference, he lashed out at Roberts and the five other justices in the majority and used the phrase 'fools and lap dogs,' also saying of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett that it was 'an embarrassment to their families.'Donald Trump Tries A Different StatuteEven before the ink felt dry, Trump pivoted. He signed an executive order imposing a 10 percent tariff on imports from countries around the world, effective immediately, and justified it under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a provision that allows tariffs of up to 15 percent for up to 150 days to address 'large and serious' trade deficits.The White House said Canada and Mexico were exempt because of the trilateral free trade agreement ratified during Trump's first term in 2020, a reminder that trade law is never just economics, it is paperwork and politics and old promises that refuse to die.If you trace this episode like a timeline, it bounces from a marble courthouse to a West Wing lectern to the governor's mansion in Little Rock. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the Court's decision 'not only disappointing' but 'wrong,' and argued on NewsNation that 'the fastest way to get him to do something is to tell him that he can't,' adding that Trump has 'so many tools in his toolbox.'Not every Republican was cheering. Utah Sen. John Curtis praised the decision as a check on presidential power, writing that it reaffirmed the founders' checks and balances 'nearly 250 years later,' even as he noted unresolved questions about revenue already collected and what authority the administration might try next.
