Donald Trump may press on with his tariff policy irrespective of the Supreme Court’s ruling, a political analyst has warned.
The president has made it clear he believes he has a right to carry out the economic policies of his administration, even after a 6-3 ruling against him. Following the court’s ruling on February 20, Trump must now seek Congressional approval to raise and lower tariffs.
A day later, Trump imposed a 15% global tariff. This, CNN analyst Stephen Collinson said, is an example of how the president will carry on with his economic plan, irrespective of the law.
He wrote, “Trump will press on for two main reasons. First, he believes in tariffs with evangelical intensity. His faith in them is so intense it blanks out any evidence that they are a tax on consumers or that they don’t work.
“He regards globalization’s gutting of industrial heartlands where he won millions of votes as vindication of protectionist views he’s held since the 1980s. The second reason for Trump’s refusal to bend is that tariffs are a means to his ultimate ends of unfettered presidential authority and rejection of a constitutional system that by design shares power across government.”
When Trump was asked about the ruling on Friday, he replied, “I don’t have to. I have the right to do tariffs.”
Trump’s use of tariffs during his second term as president may be tied to how he sees international relations developing. Collinson added, “Alternative powers Trump now plans to use to maintain tariffs contain compliance requirements and more limited authorities that may mean he can’t use levies as a personal thermostat to crank up heat according to his whim.
“Trump has a blunt, transactional worldview. He sees curbs on his tariff leverage as weakening the US against rivals he perceives as endlessly exploiting the world’s most powerful economy. The Supreme Court ruling may undermine his trade war ahead of expected summits with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this year.”
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