President Donald Trump warned Supreme Court justices in a social media rant that striking down his sweeping tariffs would mean “serving hostile foreign interests.”
In a rambling Truth Social post published shortly after midnight Sunday, the president revived his fiction that foreign companies pay tariffs—even though the duties are levied on U.S. importers—and said anyone who doesn’t support them is anti-American.
“Those opposing us are serving hostile foreign interests that are not aligned with the success, safety and prosperity of the USA,” Trump wrote. “They couldn’t care less about us. I look so much forward to the United States Supreme Court’s decision on this urgent and time sensitive matter so that we can continue, in an uninterrupted manner to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Earlier this month, the justices heard oral arguments in a case challenging the president’s authority to unilaterally impose tariffs on products from dozens of U.S. trading partners, which the administration argues is valid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
But after two key conservative justices sounded skeptical on the government’s position, the president has repeatedly lobbied the court via social media post.
“Despite the massive amount of money being made by the United States of America, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, as a direct result of Tariffs being charged to other countries, the full benefit of the Tariffs has not yet been calculated in that many of the buyers of goods and products, in order to avoid paying the Tariffs in the short term, ‘STOCK UP’ by purchasing far more inventory than they can use in order to avoid Tariff payments in the short term,” he wrote Sunday night.
Now that the pre-stocked inventory is running out, though, and the tariffs have fully taken effect, the tariff revenue will “SKYROCKET,” Trump wrote.
While it’s true that some companies stockpiled inventory in the spring before the tariffs took effect, the tariffs aren’t paid by other countries. They’re a type of import duty paid by American companies, which must eat the costs or pass them along to consumers.
Last month, a Goldman Sachs report found that consumers were shouldering about 55 percent of the costs of the tariffs.
Many companies have been absorbing the additional costs in the hopes that the tariffs are temporary, but products such as cars, toys, and tea are set to get more expensive as the duties weigh on corporate profits, The New York Times reported in late October.
A study by Lending Tree found that the average American will spend an additional 14.6 percent on Christmas presents this year because of the tariffs.
Trump has nevertheless insisted the tariffs are here to stay, and claimed that an adverse Supreme Court ruling could reduce the U.S. to “almost Third World status.”
Without the tariffs, the president would also lose his favorite cudgel for pressuring and punishing foreign countries whose domestic policies he disagrees with.
Even though American companies pay the duties, foreign producers can see their products priced out of the U.S. market if the tariffs get too high.
Last month, Trump halted all trade negotiations with Canada and announced he was imposing an additional 10 percent tariff on Canadian products after the province of Ontario ran an ad that Trump didn’t like featuring Ronald Reagan warning about the dangers of protectionism.
So far, however, the new tariff—which would bring the total duty on Canadian exports to 45 percent—hasn’t been applied, Politico reported Sunday. Prime Minister Mark Carney personally apologized to Trump for the ad during an October economic summit in Asia.
“We are already the ‘hottest’ Country anywhere in the World, but this Tariff POWER will bring America National Security and Wealth the likes of which has never been seen before,” Trump wrote on Sunday night.
Just a few hours later, at 5:30 a.m. Monday, he was back on Truth Social complaining about the New York Giants’ decision to go for a touchdown instead of kicking a field goal during the team’s 34-27 loss on Sunday to the Detroit Lions.
The post Trump, 79, Frets About His Supreme Court Battle in Late-Night Rant appeared first on The Daily Beast.
