Trump Rails Against Supreme Court Over Absence Of ‘One Little Half Sentence’ On Tariffs

(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump railed against the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday over what he claimed was “one little half sentence” that would have saved the U.S. “$159 billion” in tariff refunds.

The Supreme Court ruled in February that Trump’s “Liberation Day” emergency tariffs imposed on nearly every country the U.S. does business with were illegal and therefore invalid.

The 6-3 ruling prompted the federal government to refund the tariff revenue it has collected so far on those illegal duties.

The president wrote Friday, “People and Companies that have taken advantage of our Country for decades, because of the horrible and ridiculous United States Supreme Court decision on Tariffs, are now supposed to be given back 159 Billion Dollars.”

“All they had to do was one little half sentence, ‘that the United States does not have to pay back monies that were already paid’ — and our Country would be 159 Billion Dollars richer,” Trump continued. “That’s more than most Countries are worth! Think of it — Just one half sentence, and we would have saved 159 Billion Dollars. Couldn’t they have done that for our Nation?”

On CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday, Trump called the Supreme Court’s decision “a little setback,” continuing:

They said I can charge tariffs, but I have to do it a different way. And because of what they did, we have to pay back $160 billion. All they had to do is add one sentence, just one sentence. And that’s — you don’t have to pay anything taken in thus far back. But because they didn’t add — and by the way, it was a close call too. There were justices that were powerful that I was right on the tariffs. But because we lost by just two votes, you know, just little vote, two votes, we have to pay back $165 billion. They could have, with a little one sentence — you don’t have to paid back tariffs that have already been received, you start from this point, and you do it a different way. So we’re doing it a different, we’re going to end up with the same.

Trump’s statement was riddled with errors — it was not a “close call.” Trump lost by three votes, not two, and the justices did not say he had the power to charge tariffs without congressional approval. The U.S. Constitution explicitly gives sole power to levy tariffs to Congress, which, in turn, has given the executive some emergency powers to unilaterally issue tariffs.

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