A defiant and visibly angry President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the Supreme Court after it struck down his use of broad emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs
The White House has vowed to immediately bypass the ruling with new levies and accusing the justices of a lack of “courage.”
In a hastily arranged 45-minute appearance in the White House briefing room—his first there in a month—the president fumed over the court’s decision to eliminate his emergency tariff authority, an economic tool he has long considered central to his agenda.
“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for the country,” Trump said, swinging between indignation over the legal defeat and insistence that his trade war would not be derailed.
He continued, “Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected.”
The president revealed that he was at a breakfast meeting with governors in the State Dining Room when an aide passed him a note informing him of the ruling. According to people familiar with his remarks, he immediately blasted the decision as “a disgrace” and cut the event short to arrange his public response.
A Shift in Strategy
Moments after his tirade, the White House unveiled its Plan B: a new 10% across-the-board tariff that will be imposed under a separate, albeit slower, legal authority. The new duties are expected to last for up to five months—unless extended by Congress—giving the administration time to draw up a more permanent gameplan for waging its trade wars.
“It’s a little more complicated, the process takes a little more time,” Trump acknowledged from the briefing room podium. “But the end result is going to get us more money.”
The president hinted that this new path could ultimately prove more aggressive. “I’m going to go in a different direction, probably the direction that I should’ve gone the first time,” he said. “In fact, I can charge much more than I was charging.”
Economic and Political ‘Mess’
Despite the president’s confident messaging, the ruling throws his economic and foreign policy agenda into significant turmoil. The Supreme Court did not offer guidance on how the government should handle the billions of dollars in tariff revenues already collected from companies, which are now racing to seek restitution. Trump aides and trade experts alike have succinctly described the resulting scenario as “a mess.”
The president on Friday declined to commit to paying back those funds—money he had previously suggested could fund new initiatives, including sending Americans $2,000 “tariff dividends.”
The legal defeat also raises fresh questions about America’s standing on the world stage, as allies and adversaries assess whether the president’s primary trade weapon has been blunted.
“It’s a huge blow to the president, and it does take away a major foreign policy tool,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. “This is a very decisive statement by the Supreme Court that, on the issue of trade policy, the administration clearly and dramatically exceeded its authority.”
Unified GOP Backlash
The White House quickly circled the wagons, with Vice President JD Vance and several Cabinet officials rushing to criticize the ruling and the court itself—despite its clear conservative majority and the fact that Trump appointed two of the justices who voted against him.
“This is lawlessness from the Court, plain and simple,” Vance wrote on X. “And its only effect will be to make it harder for the president to protect American industries and supply chain resiliency.”
A Shadow Over the State of the Union
The political fallout arrives at a delicate time for the administration. Aides were in the midst of preparing for next week’s State of the Union address, which was meant to tout economic progress ahead of the looming midterm elections. Instead, they are now managing a constitutional crisis and an economic pivot.
As for the six justices who ruled against him and might ordinarily be invited to sit in the front row for that speech, Trump was blunt.
“They’re barely invited,” he said. “Honestly, I couldn’t care less if they come.”
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