An absurd new court filing from the Trump administration tries to scare a U.S. appeals court with grim predictions of economic catastrophe should it uphold and immediately enforce a ruling that blocked many of the president’s haphazard and widely unpopular tariffs.
On Monday, the Justice Department basically copied and pasted a hysterical plea from Donald Trump’s Truth Social account, in which the president claimed the country would experience another Great Depression if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confirms and enforces a May decision from a Court of International Trade panel that found many of Trump’s tariffs on foreign countries were illegal. Judges at the appeals court have already expressed skepticism about the Trump administration’s arguments.
In a letter to the court, Solicitor General John Sauer and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate argued that even if the judges agree that some of Trump’s tariffs are illegal, they should hold off on enforcing its decision while the administration appeals to the Supreme Court. And the letter was replete with Trumpian self-praise and propaganda:
There is no substitute for the tariffs and deals that President Trump has made. One year ago, the United States was a dead country, and now, because of the trillions of dollars being paid by countries that have so badly abused us, America is a strong, financially viable, and respected country again. If the United States were forced to pay back the trillions of dollars committed to us, America could go from strength to failure the moment such an incorrect decision took effect.
These deals for trillions of dollars have been reached, and other countries have committed to pay massive sums of money. If the United States were forced to unwind these historic agreements, the President believes that a forced dissolution of the agreements could lead to a 1929-style result. In such a scenario, people would be forced from their homes, millions of jobs would be eliminated, hard-working Americans would lose their savings, and even Social Security and Medicare could be threatened.
The country, of course, wasn’t “dead” a year ago — though it has teetered on the brink of recession under Trump and continues to suffer the impact of his protectionist agenda. For instance, U.S. companies paying these tariffs have started passing the costs on to consumers.
In reality, there’s no evidence that outlawing Trump’s tariffs would destroy the economy.
There’s also no guarantee that Trump’s trade agreements will ever bring in trillions of dollars, in part because, as my colleague Steve Benen recently noted, it’s still an open question whether some of the agreements are even legally binding or enforceable. And it’s certainly rich for Trump’s DOJ to warn about purported threats to jobs, Medicare and Social Security when his administration has gutted the federal workforce and he recently signed a budget that includes massive cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits.
In reality, there’s no evidence that outlawing Trump’s tariffs would destroy the economy. To the contrary, many American consumers and companies would probably breathe a sigh of relief if they were freed from the dictatorial whim of their wannabe king and the tariff-induced taxes effectively placed on various goods. It’s a sign of desperation that the administration is relying on scare tactics to claim otherwise.