Now what? Tariff ruling creates chaos on top of chaos
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President Trump holds a list of tariffs on "Liberation Day." Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
An obscure federal court blew up the cornerstone of President Trump's economic agenda last night, unleashing more chaos on the global economy and all but wiping out his negotiating leverage with trading partners.
Why it matters: At least for now, it turns out the legal system — not the bond market, nor weak economic indicators — is the biggest restraint on Trump's trade agenda.
Zoom in: A three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade — Reagan, Obama and Trump appointees — ruled that Trump does not have the authority to impose sweeping tariffs under 1970s-era emergency legislation.
- In fact, the judges said an injunction wasn't enough — they issued a summary judgment invalidating and blocking almost all of Trump's trade levies to date.
- Those levies were vast, from a 10% global baseline tariff, to fentanyl-related tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, to (paused) reciprocal tariffs on dozens of other countries.
- They effectively raised U.S. tariff rates to their highest levels since the 1930s, and threatened to cost American households thousands of dollars in higher goods costs.
The big picture: Tens of thousands of containers full of goods enter the United States every day.
- Whether or even what levies to assess on their contents today, versus yesterday, is a mess that could snarl commerce across the country for days to come.
Follow the money: The levies, while causing huge economic strain, were also generating significant revenue for the government — almost $23 billion so far this month.
- They were meant to be a cornerstone of the administration's fiscal plans — trade adviser Peter Navarro wrote in an op-ed Wednesday that tariffs would generate up to $3.3 trillion in revenue over the next decade.
- Not all the income will disappear, though; tariffs imposed under a different legal authority called Section 232 — including on imports of autos, steel and aluminum — are unaffected by the ruling.
What they're saying: "This really *is* Liberation Day: The court's decision striking down Trump's mass tariffs as unlawful is a tremendous triumph for the rule of law, human freedom, and prosperity, and a deserved rebuke for arbitrary one-man rule over our livelihoods," Walter Olsen, senior fellow at the Cato Institute's Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, said of the ruling.
For the record: "It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement.
- "President Trump pledged to put America First, and the Administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness."
- The administration filed a notice of appeal just minutes after the ruling.
- "The judicial coup is out of control," White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted to X.
The bottom line: Trump previously declared the U.S. was like a department store, and he set the prices.
- Three little-known judges just put him out of business, and upended global commerce in the process.
