The obstructionists' case before the Supreme Court this week, seeking to stop President Donald Trump's use of tariffs to rebalance global trade and provide for U.S. national security, defies logic and constitutional design and intention, according to Trump.
"So, let's get this straight??? The President of the United States is allowed (and fully approved by Congress!) to stop ALL TRADE with a Foreign Country (Which is far more onerous than a Tariff!), and LICENSE a Foreign Country, but is not allowed to put a simple Tariff on a Foreign Country, even for purposes of NATIONAL SECURITY," Trump wrote Sunday morning on Truth Social.
"That is NOT what our great Founders had in mind! The whole thing is ridiculous!
"Other Countries can Tariff us, but we can't Tariff them??? It is their DREAM!!!
"Businesses are pouring into the USA ONLY BECAUSE OF TARIFFS. HAS THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT NOT BEEN TOLD THIS??? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON??? President DJT."
Trump's argument was presented to the Supreme Court by U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer in a hearing this week.
The arguments focused on whether a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, meant for use during national emergencies, gave Trump the power he claimed to impose tariffs. Every lower court to consider that question has ruled against Trump, but they allowed the tariffs to remain in place while the litigation made its way to the Supreme Court.
"People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS!" Trump wrote in another Truth Social post Sunday morning. "We are now the Richest, Most Respected Country In the World, With Almost No Inflation, and A Record Stock Market Price. 401k’s are Highest EVER.
"We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion. Record Investment in the USA, plants and factories going up all over the place."
In addition to the government revenues on the back of foreign importers, Trump said the budget windfalls could also be passed on to Americans at a rate of a $2,000 dividend per person.
"A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone," Trump wrote in an appeal to his critical anti-Trump Democrat voters who might appreciate a government hand down.
Trump added that none of this comes without his progressive tariffs policy enriching America.
"WITHOUT TARIFFS, WE HAVE NONE OF THE FOLLOWING (JUST POSTED) TRUTH!!! President DJT," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump's administration was on the defensive for much of the arguments before the Supreme Court this week. A major reason for that, according to legal experts, was the surprisingly harsh questioning by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative who sometimes defies expectations.
In one notable exchange Wednesday, Gorsuch said he was concerned by the administration's assertion that the tariffs are permissible because of the president's broad authority in dealing with foreign countries.
If that were true, Gorsuch said, "what would prohibit Congress from just abdicating all responsibility to regulate foreign commerce – for that matter, declare war – to the president?"
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority, including three justices whom Trump appointed during his first term in office. Gorsuch is one of those, appointed by Trump in 2017.
The court has proven receptive to Trump's expansive view of presidential authority in a series of rulings since he returned to office in January. But the court primarily has confronted questions about Trump's power through emergency orders that are not final rulings on the legal merits of his actions.
"Justice Gorsuch indicated more of an opposition than we had initially thought," Walker Livingston, an analyst at the research firm Capstone, said about the tariffs.
But, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick noted more favorable results on cross-examination.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.