Lawrence O’Donnell has said the worst is still to come for President Donald Trump, even after a federal trade court shot down his “illegal and unconstitutional” tariffs.
The Court of International Trade said Wednesday that Trump had exceeded his authority and unanimously ruled to block his sweeping “Liberation Day” import levies from early April. However, the Court of Appeals suspended the ruling, saying that the tariffs can remain active while it “considers the motions paper” from the White House. The next hearing in the case is on June 5. If that doesn’t go Trump’s way, it could go all the way to the Supreme Court.
O’Donnell said during a blistering monologue on MSNBC’s The Last Word Wednesday evening that the levies “were constitutionally insane.” Following up on Thursday, O’Donnell said the worst is yet to come for the president.
The multi-hyphenate host, who is also an actor, screenwriter and TV producer, pointed out that Trump, through his lawyers to the appeals court, had pledged to issue refunds to affected businesses if his tariffs are found to be illegal in a final court ruling.
“And so, as many humiliation days as Donald Trump has had since he started his failed trade war ‘Refund Day’ will be the ultimate ‘Humiliation Day’ at the end of Donald Trump’s disastrous trade war,” O’Donnell warned.
“‘Refund Day’ is coming, and it will be the most humiliating day Donald Trump will suffer in his losing trade war.”
A former customs official told the BBC that if the appeal is unsuccessful, Customs and Border Protection would issue directions to its officers to refund tariff payments made at U.S. borders.
John Leonard, a former top official at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency added that, for now, Trump’s duties will continue to be paid.
O’Donnell added that on Thursday evening, Trump “humiliated himself once again by showing how irreversibly stupid and flawlessly ignorant he is of the actual words of the Constitution and their meaning.”
He was referring to a rambling Truth Social post in which Trump said the courts had “incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed Tariffs.”
The host said the post reveals Trump’s “most severe mental weakness, not just in the history of the presidency, but in the history of federal elected officials in this country.”
O’Donnell said that the U.S. Court of International Trade had in fact ruled in favor of the United States of America and added that even high school students know the usual process for trade deals.
“Donald Trump goes on to say, if allowed to stand, this would completely destroy presidential power. The presidency would never be the same. Exclamation point,” O’Donnell went on.
“No, Donald, no, no no, Donald. If the Court of International Trade’s decision is allowed to stand, that means the presidency would be the same as it has always been…the presidency in which no president, other than Donald Trump, ever tried to randomly set new tariffs all around the world, all by himself.”
He called Trump the “utterly lost occupant of the White House,” and called the director of his National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, “permanently smiling and utterly incompetent.”
“The second Trump presidency has turned out to be much, much, worse than his first presidency,” he concluded.
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