Top MAGA figures melted down on Friday after the conservative-majority Supreme Court slapped down President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional tariffs.
The ruling, which saw conservative justices Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts, and Amy Coney Barrett side with the high court’s liberal trio, has been derided as both “outrageous” and a “betrayal of the American people” by Trump’s sycophants.
“They are practically handing foreign nations a free pass to keep punishing our workers and ripping off our country,” wrote Alex Bruesewitz of the high court. “This is a total of a (sic) disgrace!”
Republican Rep. Bernie Moreno, of Ohio, reacted by writing that the ruling “handcuffs our fight against unfair trade that has devastated American workers for decades.”
He continued, “These tariffs protected jobs, revived manufacturing, and forced cheaters like China to pay up. Now globalists win, factories investments may reverse, and American workers lose again. This betrayal must be reversed, and Republicans must get to work immediately on a reconciliation bill to codify the tariffs that had made our country the hottest country on earth!”
However, a Conn Selmer factory in Moreno’s state announced this month that its owner, MAGA billionaire John Paulson, was closing the facility, laying off more than a hundred American workers, and offshoring labor to China—a decision that was made with the president’s tariffs in place.
Some MAGA figures are calling on the president to defy the Supreme Court and press on with his tariff crusade.
“Trump can, will, and should reimpose the tariffs by other means,” said commentator Jack Posobiec.
Posobiec also called on the House and Senate, which have thin GOP majorities, to “enshrine President Trump’s tariff ability in law.”
MAGA commentator Gunther Engelman, who initially melted down at the decision, later called for calm because he is confident Trump will find a way to circumvent the high court’s ruling.
“Trump will make the tariffs happen,” he wrote. “There are ways. Trump wins, every time.”
Engelman then called former Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” for praising the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Trump, meanwhile, previously described the tariff case as “literally, life or death for our country.”
The president received word of the ruling while hosting governors for breakfast at the White House. He reportedly reacted by saying the ruling was a “disgrace.”
CNN reported that the “breakfast had been going well” until Trump was told the bad news.
“President Trump became enraged,” the network’s Kristen Holmes said on a live report. “He started ranting about the decision, not only calling it a disgrace, but started attacking the courts, at one point, saying these effing courts, but using the actual language there.”
“He at one point ranted against the decision and the court, saying ‘these f–king courts,” Holmes reported.
Three conservative justices dissented: Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh. In his dissent, Kavanaugh warned that chaos would follow the court’s decision, as companies may now seek refunds on the roughly $130–$150 billion in tariffs collected so far.
“The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers,” he wrote.
Roberts, another conservative, hinted at his stance during oral arguments. He noted in November that the ability to impose taxes “has always been a core power of Congress,” not the presidency.
Trump, 79, briefly got around the issue by using his emergency powers to impose reciprocal tariffs on dozens of U.S. allies and adversaries alike.
Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, also hinted at his decision during oral arguments when he pressed Solicitor General John Sauer by asking where the White House would draw the line on Trump’s authority in foreign affairs and on Congress’s delegation of the power to act.
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