I am as surprised as you are as but a Federal Trade Court ruled that Trump did not have the authority to declare the US Trade Deficit and the Fentanyl Crisis “States of Emergency” and then use those as an excuse to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to impose unilateral tariffs without Congressional approval. In short – all of Trump’s announced tariffs are now off the table.
Of course Trump is appealing to his pals on the Supreme Court but, for now at least, his whole plan has come undone AND, much more importantly, someone finally put a limit on his bid to exercise ABSOLUTE POWER from the Oval Office. Knowing he CAN be stopped by the courts will set a very different tone for Trump’s next 1,332 days.
“The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder,” a three-judge panel wrote.
The order blows a hole in global trade talks, already under way with more than a dozen nations, which began after the reciprocal tariffs were imposed. It also throws into question recent agreements with the U.K. and China.
Wednesday’s ruling said it would be unconstitutional for Congress to delegate “unbounded tariff power” to the President. “An unlimited delegation of tariff authority would constitute an improper abdication of legislative power to another branch of government,” the court said. Congress (not this one) placed limits in IEEPA, restricting when and how a president could place levies, the ruling said. The panel also said the U.S. Trade Deficit did not fit the law’s definition of an unusual and extraordinary threat.
Of course Team Trump will come back at this from another direction and National Security Tariffs imposed on products like steel and aluminum, as well as similar duties planned on sectors like lumber and semiconductors, are being justified under a different law and won’t be affected by this ruling – it’s a process.
Meanwhile, the markets are happy but not as much as you’d think with the S&P losing half of the gains that came off the news already (8 am) as this is just more uncertainty and now we have an angry, unpredictable Trump stomping around the White House and tweeting or X’ing or Truthing from the gold-plated toilet – so who knows what’s going to come next.
The worst thing, for Trump, is that he’s being made to look foolish and ineffective as his Absolute Power Grab is failing and this is coming on the heels of his entire trade negotiation strategy has come under the “TACO” criticism (Trump Always Chickens Out). The President rejected claims yesterday that he is backing down on tariffs and that his “strategy” simply involves setting a “ridiculous high number” before negotiating it down in exchange for concessions. “You call that chickening out,” Trump said in the Oval Office, adding that “it’s called negotiation.”
It’s never good when your predictable, questionable “strategy” is summed up in 4 letters – especially when negotiations are supposed to be your thing. The actual worst thing is Trump is, once again, exposed as a bluffer – he NEVER, legally, had the cards and he openly tried to get 190 countries to fold and, in the end, only the UK did – but we had a trade SURPLUS with them so Trump won NOTHING – and, for now, the game is over and he looks like a fool.
At least Trump is still winning against the Free Press as Paramount (PARA) offered the President $15M to settle his $20Bn lawsuit against the Network for interviewing Kamala Harris (remember her?) during the election and “editing the interview to make her sound better.” Yes, that’s a real thing and it’s not about the lawsuit – it’s about the ability of the rich and powerful to stifle our First Amendment right to a Free Press.
In fact, one of the key sticking points at the moment is whether settling with Trump will expose the Paramount board to future charges of “bribing a Government official” – because that’s exactly what this is – they are paying Trump off so that he will allow PARA’s merger with Sky Dance to go through.
Disney (DIS) has already paid $15M plus $1M in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer because George Stephanopoulos had the nerve to say on the air that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll – which he was… META gave Trump $25M in compensation for suspending Trump’s Facebook account for inciting violence after the Jan 6th riot that he incited and even Elon’s X gave Trump $10M for similar reasons.
I just want to say, for the record that Trump didn’t do any of the things he did or that people think he did and he is, indeed our greatest President who always wins and never makes a mistake as he walks like a God among men – and that goes for everything I ever have or will say about President Trump – our dear Dear Leader.
Don’t worry, the media you watch, read and listen to won’t be making disclaimers like that – they will simply, out of fear, just stop criticizing the President so you won’t hear about any bad things he does. Every settlement Trump gets is another nail in the coffin of a free press and it won’t be just Trump – the precedent allows ANY rich and powerful individuals and corporations to force the media into compliance because even Paramount, with $28Bn in Global Sales, “only” makes $1Bn a year and the court costs and the settlements just aren’t worth risking telling the truth to the American people – are they?
There have always been Oligarchs and Politicians seeking to muzzle journalists – that’s why we have a first amendment in the first place – to make sure that doesn’t happen. But the moment you allow the press to be dragged into court and incur the costs and risk the fines – then the First Amendment is already worthless because it costs Trump and his kind nothing to harass the Media and force their compliance – simply because he can afford it and they can’t.
Money is power and that is who we vote for these days – we’ve made the rich and the powerful our elected leaders – they write the checks and there are no balances…
