Supreme Court rules Trump lacked authority to impose sweeping tariffs

President Donald Trump paid a price for going it alone on tariffs as the Supreme Court on Friday delivered a rare rebuke ruling that he lacked the power to declare an economic emergency and impose sweeping new taxes on importsTrump had made tariffs the bedrock of his economic pitch to voters ahead of the midterm elections even describing tariffs as his ldquofavourite word in the dictionaryrdquo He promised that factories would relocate from overseas and bring jobs with them and he warned that losing the tariffs could plunge the US into a deep recessionHowever Fridayrsquos ruling is likely to prolong political and economic uncertainty over international trade through the election yearTrump reacts strongly to court rulingTrump called the decision ldquoa disgracerdquo after he was handed a note informing him of the ruling during a private meeting with several governors according to two people familiar with his reaction who spoke on condition of anonymity Another person briefed on the conversation said Trump remarked that he would ldquohave to do something about these courtsrdquoThe meeting with the governors ended shortly after Trump learned of the decision He is expected to address the ruling publicly during an afternoon press conferenceRepublican strategist Doug Heye said it was immediately clear that the president ldquois not going to be happyrdquo about the decisionldquoWersquore starting to hear that this is a massive blow a massive repudiationrdquo he saidHowever Heye added that Trump would likely look for another way to pursue his trade agendaldquoAre they going to be able to figure out how to use this as an opportunity or notrdquo he asked ldquoThere are too many questionsrdquoWhite House explores alternative legal routes to maintain tariffsThe White House plans to use alternative laws to preserve the tariffs but those policies could prolong the debate and keep alive an issue that is largely unpopular with votersAbout six in 10 Americans said Trump had gone too far in imposing new tariffs on other countries according to an APNORC poll conducted in JanuaryEven more concerning for a president elected on promises to address affordability 76 per cent said in a poll conducted last April that Trumprsquos tariff policies would increase the cost of consumer goods in the USTrumprsquos aggressive use of tariffs had left many Republican lawmakers uneasy both publicly and privately forcing them to defend what were essentially tax increases on American consumers and businessesAt various points during Trumprsquos second term at least seven senators from his party voiced concerns Earlier this month six House Republicans joined Democrats in voting for a resolution opposing Trumprsquos tariffs on CanadaFree trade had long been a central plank of the Republican Party before Trumprsquos rise to powerFormer Vice President Mike Pence who served during Trumprsquos first term praised the Supreme Court ruling as a victory for the public the constitutional separation of powers and free tradeldquoAmerican families and American businesses pay American tariffs mdash not foreign countriesrdquo Pence wrote on social media ldquoWith this decision American families and businesses can breathe a sigh of reliefrdquoDemocrats highlight Supreme Court ruling as rebuke to Trumprsquos tariffsDemocrats were quick to seize on the opportunity presented by the ruling Rep Suzan DelBene DWash said Trump ldquois not a kingrdquo and that his ldquotariffs were always illegalrdquoldquoRepublicans in Congress could have easily ended this economic crisis by standing up for their communitiesrdquo said DelBene chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ldquoInstead they chose to bend the knee to Trump while families small businesses and farmers suffered from higher pricesrdquoThe ruling allows Trumprsquos critics to argue that he broke the law and that middleclass families suffered as a resultStill Trump has maintained that his tariffs were the difference between national prosperity and deep poverty a message he repeated Thursday night to voters in the swing state of GeorgiaThe president used the word ldquotariffrdquo 28 times during his speech at a Georgia steel company Coosa Steel which credited the import taxes with making its products more competitive against goods from ChinaTrump defends tariffs warns country would face economic trouble without themldquoWithout tariffs this country would be in such trouble right nowrdquo Trump saidHe also complained that he had to justify his use of tariffs to the Supreme CourtldquoI have to wait for this decision Irsquove been waiting forever forever and the language is clear that I have the right to do it as presidentrdquo he said ldquoI have the right to put tariffs on for national security purposes against countries that have been ripping us off for yearsrdquoBy a 6ndash3 vote the high court disagreedThe president has consistently misrepresented his tariffs claiming mdash despite evidence to the contrary mdash that foreign governments would pay them and that the revenues would be sufficient to reduce the national debt and provide taxpayers with dividend checksNew research linked to one of Americarsquos leading banks found that tariffs paid by midsize US businesses tripled over the past yearThe additional costs meant that companies employing a combined 48 million people in the US mdash the types of businesses Trump had promised to revive mdash had to absorb the expense by passing it on to customers through higher prices reducing their workforce or accepting lower profitsTrumprsquos tariffs mdash not all of which were overturned mdash were expected to generate USD 3 trillion in revenue over 10 years according to the Congressional Budget Office While substantial that amount would still be insufficient to cover projected deficitsThe Supreme Court has not ruled on how any refund process would workThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever