President Donald Trump announced Friday he was using different legal authorities to continue tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down his use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The Supreme Court declared Trump had exceeded his powers under IEEPA in a 6-3 ruling issued Friday. Trump praised Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh for their dissents before announcing a 10% tariff on all imports.
“The ability to block, embargo, restrict, license, or impose any other condition on a foreign country’s ability to conduct trade with the United States under IEEPA has been fully confirmed by this decision,” Trump said. “So now there’s no doubt because, you know, there were a lot of questions about tariffs because no president was smart enough to use them to protect our country from those countries and businesses that were ripping us off. You took a look at the deficits that we had with some of these countries, it was disgraceful what they got away with for many, many decades.”
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“But now we know because this decision affirms all those things that some people weren’t sure about in order to protect, and it says so, in order to protect our country, a president can actually charge more tariffs than I was charging in the past period of a year,” Trump continued. “Under the various tariffs authorities, so we can use other of the statutes, other of the tariff authorities, which have also been confirmed and are fully allowed.”
Trump announced reciprocal tariffs to address import duties and “horrendous imbalances” in trade with other countries during an April 2025 Rose Garden event, before announcing the pause via an April 9 post on Truth Social, citing the willingness of other countries to negotiate trade deals. Despite Trump pausing the tariffs, courts still ruled against the tariffs.
“Therefore, effective immediately, all national security tariffs under Section 232 and existing Section 301 tariffs, they’re existing, they’re there, remain in place, fully in place and in full force and effect,” Trump said. “Today, I will sign an order to impose a 10% global tariff under Section 122, over and above our normal tariffs already being charged and we’re also initiating several Section 301 and other investigations to protect our country from unfair trading practices of other countries and companies. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
During oral arguments on Nov. 5, the justices seemed doubtful of Trump’s assertion he had the authority to levy tariffs using IEEPPA, citing the “major questions” and “nondelegation” doctrines. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the tariffs as a “signature policy” of his administration.
“It’s a one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people’s elected representatives,” Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, who eventually was part of the majority that struck down the use of IEEPA to impose the tariffs, said.
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