A jilted President Trump went on a two-week power grab after he had his wings clipped by the Supreme Court.
Immediately after what he called the “extraordinarily anti-American decision” to strike down his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs from last April, Trump launched a blitz that has laid bare his intentions to rely entirely on his own presidential powers while largely ignoring Congress and public opinion.
“I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” he declared on Truth Social just a day after the Supreme Court decision.
What unfolded over roughly two weeks was creative use of existing law that allowed Trump’s power to go relatively unchecked. Ushering in his new, chunkier levies, the 79-year-old invoked the never before used section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allowed him to impose a levy of up to 15 percent for 150 days.
The move effectively dared the judiciary to intervene again.
Less than a week later, he was at it again. On Feb. 26, streaming giant Netflix bailed on a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.
The exit came after pressure from the Trump administration, and its figurehead openly threatened repercussions if Netflix, painted as a malignant left-wing tastemaker, were to succeed in its bid. In one extraordinary intervention, Trump demanded that Netflix remove former Barack Obama official Susan Rice from its board or “face the consequences.”
He had also wielded the power of the Federal Communications Commission against the streamer’s bid. Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, openly favored Paramount’s bid because, he claims, Netflix ownership would “raise a lot of competition concerns.”
The result of this interference cleared the way for Trump allies David Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, to take control of assets that include CNN, the network the president openly despises.
David Ellison has reportedly privately assured Trump officials that he would make sweeping changes to CNN, in a move that has terrified staff. “The panic at CNN right now is off the charts,” one insider told Status. “We are doomed,” said another.
Elsewhere, the administration has spread its tentacles into the artificial intelligence industry. On Feb. 27, Trump ordered federal agencies to stop doing business with the AI startup Anthropic after the company refused to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its technology. The Defense Department subsequently labeled the $380 billion firm a “supply chain risk,” a designation typically applied to foreign adversaries.
Trump offered a blunt explanation for the move, telling Politico: “I fired Anthropic like dogs.”
On Feb. 28, the United States launched a military assault on Iran. Over 1,000 have died in the six days since. “Operation Epic Fury,” as his Iran conflict has been code-named, was not congressionally approved.
His top officials have tried not to call it a war, apparently mindful of the rigorous scrutiny such a term typically requires from Congress.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties, that often happens in war,” Trump said, announcing the “war” in a pre-recorded Truth Social message last week.
In an interview with Axios, the president said he expected to be personally involved in selecting Iran’s next leader, comparing the situation to Venezuela, where interim president Delcy Rodríguez has acted as a conduit for U.S. interests.
The moves come as Trump continues testing how far presidential power can stretch without legislation.
Polling suggests the public is uneasy with the approach. A recent YouGov survey for The Economist found Trump’s disapproval rating at 59 percent as the Iran conflict began. An earlier poll by CNN found 58 percent of Americans said the president had already gone too far in using executive power.
White House spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Beast: “The President is using his authority granted by Congress to address fundamental international payments problems and to deal with our country’s large and serious balance-of-payments deficits. The Administration will vigorously defend the President’s action in court.”
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