The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in a case that could decide whether President Donald Trump has the authority to unilaterally level wide-ranging retaliatory tariffs against other countries. And while the oral argument was far from decisive, the administration could be in trouble.
Trump has called this case a matter of “LIFE OR DEATH for our Country”—the “biggest case” the Court has heard “in a hundred years.” That’s an exaggeration, but the stakes are potentially enormous.
Tariffs are a central pillar of Trump’s foreign policy. He’s used the tariffs challenged here, which include duties of up to 50 percent (and the threat sometimes of even more) on dozens of countries all over the world as leverage for major international agreements. Most recently, his threat of massive tariffs reportedly helped convince China to ease U.S. access to critical rare-earth minerals—although the argument could be made that China blocked the export of rare earths in the first place only because of Trump’s earlier tariff threats.
