For a few hours on Friday, the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision that President Donald Trump’s global tariffs are an illegal and unprecedented abuse of emergency wartime powers looked poised to leave Trump’s second-term legacy in tatters and the future of his presidency in doubt.
And then Trump hit back with characteristic defiance. Arguing that the court gave him the “unquestioned right” to impose tariffs, Trump announced he would sign an executive order imposing a global 10% tariff while pursuing his trade policies along other legal avenues. He did so Friday night, all but guaranteeing the White House will end up back in federal court while markets, businesses and consumers endure uncertainty over Trump’s ever-shifting approach to trade.
In short, it’s more Trumpian chaos-as-usual.
Global tariffs have been a centerpiece of Trump’s presidency, both as economic policy and as a potent political weapon to browbeat foreign nations into signing trade deals favorable to the United States. They have also generated a mountain of revenue — more than $289 billion last year — on the backs of American importers and consumers. Now, Trump faces the humiliating prospect of repaying over $175 billion in tariff fees to injured parties, according to a Penn-Wharton Budget Model analysis.
The Trump administration spent most of last year (and millions of taxpayer dollars) fighting multiple federal court battles over the legality of the tariffs Trump imposed in the spring. When cases reached the Supreme Court in November, the justices expressed skepticism during oral argument. It’s unclear whether the measure Trump signed Friday will eventually fare any better in the courts than the administration’s initial efforts.
It’s unclear whether the measure Trump announced Friday will eventually fare any better in the courts than the administration’s initial efforts.
“The Government thus concedes, as it must, that the President enjoys no inherent authority to impose tariffs during peacetime,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “And it does not defend the challenged tariffs as an exercise of the President’s warmaking powers. The United States, after all, is not at war with every nation in the world.”
The history of Trump’s tariffs has, of course, been rocky. Trump made big promises last year to fund federal programs through tariff revenue, including his $12 billion “farmer bailout,” a $2,000 “tariff dividend” for low-income families and a host of other costly schemes. But that money isn’t Trump’s to spend; it belongs to the millions of Americans who paid higher prices on a vast array of products and materials last year, from Levi’s jeans to McCormick paprika.
Yet clawing that money back from the Treasury will be no easy task. In his dissent, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that refunding taxpayers would be nothing short of a logistical mess. That’s no excuse for inaction. Congress can and should act to clarify tariff policy for future generations by passing clear laws limiting all future presidents from engaging in similar (illegal) trickery. They should also demand a full account of how much tariff revenue has been generated, with the aim of returning it to taxpayers as soon as possible.
Congress must assume what the president’s actions Friday showed: that Trump and his cronies will try everything in their power to skirt the court’s decision. Fortunately, Congress possesses the legal power to hold the White House accountable; it can do so by writing clear and forceful laws that preserve their constitutional authority to regulate taxes and tariffs.
Of course, that would require Congress to reassert itself as a coequal branch of government, something that Republicans, as led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have staunchly refused to do. Johnson actually tried to formally surrender Congress’s tariff powers to Trump this month, a cowardly act derailed by three members of his party. The conflicting messages from the Supreme Court and Trump on Friday show how critical it is for lawmakers to do the job they were elected to do.
In case Johnson and his weak-willed colleagues have forgotten their responsibility to the Constitution, Justice Neil Gorsuch reminded them at the end of his fiery concurring opinion. “[M]ost major decisions affecting the rights and responsibilities of the American people (including the duty to pay taxes and tariffs) are funneled through the legislative process for a reason,” Gorsuch wrote. “Yes, legislating can be hard and take time. And yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design.” Our founders didn’t create Congress as a place for halfhearted politicians to surrender the rights of the American people to an autocrat. Our founders didn’t create Congress as a place for halfhearted politicians to surrender the rights of the American people to an autocrat. They created Congress to check the overwhelming risk of authoritarianism, to give the people a voice in their government and to tackle the biggest challenges facing our nation — even if that means telling Trump no. “Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution sets forth the powers of the Legislative Branch,” Roberts wrote. “The first Clause of that provision specifies that ‘The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.’ It is no accident that this power appears first.” As of now, there is no way to know how much of Trump’s tariff revenue still exists because Johnson and congressional Republicans have actively blocked efforts at oversight and accountability. In a functional government, the Supreme Court’s stinging indictment of congressional laziness should be enough motivation for lawmakers to sort out Trump’s tangled tariffs and audit how much money those predatory policies have fleeced from Americans. Reclaiming Americans’ stolen cash and returning it to them won’t repair all the damage of Trump’s illegal trade policies, but it’s a necessary first step toward reasserting Congress’s rights and restoring trust between the people and their government. That will take moral courage and a commitment to the Constitution. So far in the Trump presidency, Republicans have shown they lack both.
Max Burns is a Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies. Find him on X, @themaxburns. 
