President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s tariffs strategy has been ruled illegal<\/a> by the U.S. Court of Appeals<\/a>, delivering a major blow to his attempt to reset the \u201cunfair\u201d terms of international trade.<\/p>\n In a ruling on Friday, the court agreed with a May finding<\/a> from the Court of International Trade that found the president had overreached the authority he had claimed under a decades-old emergency economic powers act to place hefty levies on goods imported from America\u2019s trading partners.<\/p>\n Trump was incensed by the decision, insisting it was \u201chighly partisan\u201d<\/a> and \u201cwould literally destroy the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Donald Trump announces his sweeping global tariffs on April 2, which he dubbed \u2018Liberation Day\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n In his latest Truth Social posts, he has warned that $15 trillion in new investment could be lost as a result of the court\u2019s actions and declared<\/a> that, without his tariff program: \u201cIn many ways, we would become a Third World Nation, with no hope of GREATNESS again.\u201d <\/p>\n His measures remain in place for now, however, and will stay in effect until October 14 to allow him to take his complaint to the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a>. Here\u2019s a look at Trump\u2019s policy and the current state of play.<\/p>\n What are the tariffs? <\/strong><\/p>\n After much fanfare, Trump announced his \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariffs in the White House Rose Garden on April 2, invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 to set a 10 percent baseline tax on all imports and even higher taxes on goods being shipped from nearly every one of America\u2019s trading partners, with China, Canada and Mexico among those hardest hit.<\/p>\n However, the president\u2019s announcement sent shockwaves through the world\u2019s stock markets as investors panicked over their likely economic consequences, eventually forcing Trump into a rethink. He duly announced a week later that the implementation of the tariffs would be suspended for 90 days, a deadline that was eventually extended until August.<\/p>\n Administration officials led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick<\/a> used the intervening summer months to attempt to broker custom deals with other countries but only succeeded in securing a handful of agreements, notably with the U.K. and Vietnam.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been one of Trump\u2019s most vocal cheerleaders for the tariff policy (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n A revised list of tariffs<\/a> that came into effect on August 7 saw India (51 percent), Syria (41 percent), Laos (40 percent), Myanmar (4o percent) and Switzerland (39 percent) particularly hard done by. <\/p>\n The reason given for India\u2019s rate being so high was the superpower\u2019s continued purchase of Russian oil, despite its invasion of neighboring Ukraine, while Canada (35 percent) was being punished for allegedly \u201cfailing to cooperate\u201d with the U.S. on cracking down on the illegal fentanyl trade.<\/p>\n What has the court said?<\/strong><\/p>\n In its seven-four decision of Friday, the appeals court backed the international trade court\u2019s finding that Trump did not have the authority to impose global tariffs under the IEEPA.<\/p>\n The emergency law Trump invoked to justify those taxes \u201cneither mentions tariffs (or any of its synonyms) nor has procedural safeguards that contain clear limits on the president\u2019s power to impose tariffs,\u201d the appellate judges noted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government has not pointed to any statute or judicial decision that has construed the power to regulate as including the authority to impose tariffs without the statute also including a specific provision in the statute authorizing tariffs,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n Justice Department<\/a> attorneys had argued that Trump\u2019s use of the law to impose his import taxes was a vital part of the president\u2019s authority to conduct foreign policy and therefore not reviewable by courts. But the judges said they were \u201cunpersuaded\u201d by that line of reasoning.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the president of course has independent constitutional authority in these spheres, the power of the purse (including the power to tax) belongs to Congress,\u201d the judges wrote. They added that the emergency law \u201cdid not give the president wide-ranging authority to impose tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n What happens now? <\/strong><\/p>\n White House spokesperson Kush Desai reacted to the verdict by insisting that Trump had \u201clawfully exercised the tariff powers granted to him by Congress to defend our national and economic security from foreign threats.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe look forward to ultimate victory on this matter,\u201d he added, signalling that an appeal to the highest court in the land was forthcoming.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n The dispute over the extent of the president\u2019s power could be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court (AP)<\/p>\n The Supreme Court has a conservative-majority bench \u2013 six of its nine justices were nominated by Republican presidents, three of those by Trump personally \u2013 suggesting they might be more inclined to find in his favor should they chose to hear the case.<\/p>\n However, the justices might also be wary that agreeing with the president and overturning the Court of Appeals\u2019 verdict would serve as a ringing endorsement for Trump\u2019s aggressive use of the IEEPA, paving the way for him to weaponize it further in future.<\/p>\n How has Trump reacted?<\/strong><\/p>\n Reacting to the judgement, the president posted on Truth Social: \u201cALL TARIFFS ARE STILL IN EFFECT! Today a Highly Partisan Appeals Court incorrectly said that our Tariffs should be removed, but they know the United States of America will win in the end. <\/p>\n \u201cIf these Tariffs ever went away, it would be a total disaster for the Country. It would make us financially weak, and we have to be strong. The U.S.A. will no longer tolerate enormous Trade Deficits and unfair Tariffs and Non Tariff Trade Barriers imposed by other Countries, friend or foe, that undermine our Manufacturers, Farmers, and everyone else.\u201d <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Trump has been incensed by the Court of Appeals\u2019 ruling and has lashed out on Truth Social (AP)<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cIf allowed to stand, this Decision would literally destroy the United States of America. At the start of this Labor Day weekend, we should all remember that TARIFFS are the best tool to help our Workers, and support Companies that produce great MADE IN AMERICA products. For many years, Tariffs were allowed to be used against us by our uncaring and unwise Politicians. Now, with the help of the United States Supreme Court, we will use them to the benefit of our Nation, and Make America Rich, Strong, and Powerful Again!\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has since focused on making claims about the economic fallout<\/a> of the verdict, issuing his \u201cThird World Nation\u201d warning on Sunday and following that up with a meme claiming to have already generated $8 trillion in revenue from the tariffs since his program was introduced. <\/p>\n Most recently<\/a>, he wrote<\/a>: \u201cWithout Tariffs, and all of the TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS we have already taken in, our Country would be completely destroyed, and our military power would be instantly obliterated. In a 7 to 4 Opinion, a Radical Left group of judges didn’t care, but one Democrat, Obama appointed, actually voted to save our Country. I would like to thank him for his Courage! He loves and respects the U.S.A.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-389106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115128863744851552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Donald-Trump.jpeg\")
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