MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Cheers Trump ‘Humiliation’ as Supreme Court ‘Ripped Apart’ Trump’s ‘Biggest Stupidest Lie’

MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell cheered what he called President Donald Trump’s “humiliation” at the Supreme Court as the justices “ripped apart the biggest and stupidest policy lie of the Trump second term.”

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a case challenging Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs based on the invocation of emergency powers. Things did not appear to go well, as Trump Solicitor General John Sauer faced a blizzard of skeptical questions — even from the Trump picks on the court.

On Wednesday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The Last Word, the host went on a gleeful play-by-play of the events of the day:

O’DONNELL: And just 12 hours after Donald Trump’s electoral humiliation last night in the United States Supreme Court this morning, Donald Trump was humiliated again when the Supreme Court, including the justices who Donald Trump appointed, ripped apart the biggest and stupidest policy lie of the Trump second term.

At 11:22 a.m., when Neal Katyal rose to address the Supreme Court, the first sentence he spoke contained only three words, “tariffs are taxes”. And there it was, the pure economic truth and policy truth about tariffs that the founders of this government knew and that every president has known and every member of Congress has known until Donald Trump started lying about tariffs.

The Trump tariff enforcers were seated in the front row at the Supreme Court today. Why? To try to intimidate the Supreme Court.

The always goofy Howard Lutnick, the most incompetent commerce secretary in history, who is always the loudest laugh at every Trump joke, was there in the front row bringing into the room a mind smaller than the smallest mind on the Supreme Court. And sitting beside him was the secretary of the treasury.

In our lifetimes, the secretary of the treasury has never attended a Supreme Court hearing. The last secretary of the treasury known to have attended a Supreme Court hearing was the first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, but that was in 1796. Hamilton attended a Supreme Court hearing only when he was a former secretary of the treasury, the year that he attended that hearing.

And so, it is entirely possible that no currently serving secretary of the treasury has ever attended a Supreme Court hearing until the relentlessly ineffectual Scott Bessent, who appears to believe that the most important thing about being a treasury secretary is dressing the part while being willing to say the most ridiculously false things ever said about tariffs by a treasury secretary.

Donald Trump himself had been threatening to attend the Supreme Court hearing, presumably as some kind of intimidation tactic, but he chose in the end to send his completely unintimidating court jesters instead. Donald Trump’s lawyer arguing in favor of his illegal and unconstitutional tariffs today had a much more difficult time than the Trump tariff enablers do when they appear in very friendly TV interviews that they submit to. The treasury secretary and the commerce secretary have an open invitation to come on this program and discuss tariffs for the full hour or any amount of time that they choose.

But they haven’t shown up today. They had to sit there silently when Neal Katyal said tariffs are taxes. And they had to sit there silently for all hours and minutes in which Donald Trump’s lawyer never said that tariffs are not taxes. He didn’t try to make that impossible point. It was simply an accepted fact of the case by all of the justices. Tariffs are taxes.

Three minutes after Neal Katyal’s first sentence saying tariffs are taxes, the chief justice of the Supreme Court said, quote, “The tariffs are attacks.” end quote. That is how fully accepted that fact was during this argument. Chief Justice Roberts said, “Yes, sure. The tariffs are attacks, and that’s a core power of Congress. Yes, sure.”

Not a single Supreme Court justice disagreed with the chief or Neal Katyal about that. Tariffs are taxes is the single shortest sentence that exposes the lie of the Trump tariffs which Donald Trump’s claim — has claimed are paid by foreign countries. Donald Trump’s lawyer, the solicitor general, didn’t dare try to tell that lie to the Supreme Court today.

Donald Trump’s lawyer could not refute one word of Neal Katyal’s exquisite opening four sentences in his brilliant argument today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEAL KATYAL, PLAINTIFF ATTORNEY: Tariffs are taxes. They take dollars from Americans pockets and deposit them in the U.S. Treasury. Our founders gave that taxing power to Congress alone. Yet here, the president bypassed congress and imposed one of the largest tax increases in our lifetimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O’DONNELL: Dollars from Americans’ pockets. This is what Donald Trump has done. He has imposed one of the largest tax increases in our lifetimes by stealing a power that the founders explicitly gave to Congress alone. Not one word of that was disputed in any way before the Supreme Court today. Chief Justice Roberts made it very clear who pays the Trump tariffs in his first questions to Donald Trump’s solicitor general.

Chief Justice Roberts said this about the Trump tariffs. Quote, “The vehicle is imposition of taxes on Americans and that has always been the core power of Congress.”

The Supreme Court has spoken. Americans pay the Trump tariffs.

Watch above via MSNBC’s The Last Word.