Trump Vows to Use ‘Even Stronger’ Methods to Keep His Tariffs: ‘I Can Destroy the Country’

President Donald Trump raged during a White House presser on Friday, addressing the Supreme Court decision striking down his emergency tariffs. Trump vowed to use “even stronger” measures to keep his tariffs in place, riffing at one point that he has so many alternatives at his disposal he can even “destroy” countries.

Trump began his remarks by ripping into the court and Democrats, while declaring, “Today I will sign an order to impose a 10% global tariff under Section 122, over and above our normal tariffs already being charged.”

He later wildly accused the justices on the court of being under foreign influence and added, “They don’t want to do the right thing. They’re afraid of it. This was an important case to me.

“More is a symbol of economic national security. And also, I would say, just for our country itself, so important because we’re doing so well as a country. We’ve never done so well. The good news is that there are methods, practices, statutes and authorities, as recognized by the entire court in this terrible decision, and also as recognized by Congress, which they refer to, that are even stronger than the IEEPA tariffs available to me as President of the United States,” he continued, arguing that he will be able to keep his tariffs in place using other methods.

Later in his remarks, Trump expanded on what some of those powers include.

“We have alternatives. Great alternatives. Could be more money. We’ll take in more money and we’ll be a lot stronger for it. We’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. We’ll continue to do so. To show you how ridiculous the opinion is, however, the court said that I’m not allowed to charge even one dollar. I can’t charge one dollar!” Trump fumed, adding:

Can’t charge a dollar. I would have used one penny, but we don’t make the pennies anymore. We save money. Can’t charge $1 to any country under IEEPA. Not $1 — I assume — to protect other countries. This must have been done to protect those other countries, certainly not the United States of America, which they should be interested in protecting. And that’s what they’re supposed to be protecting. But I am allowed to cut off any and all trade or business with that same country. In other words, I can destroy the trade. I can destroy the country!

I’m even allowed to impose a foreign country-destroying embargo. I can embargo. I can do anything I want, but I can’t charge $1. Because that’s not what it says, and that’s the way it even reads. I can do anything I wanted to do to them, but can’t charge any money. So I’m allowed to destroy the country, but it can’t be a little fee. I could give them a little two, two-cent fee.

But I cannot charge under any circumstances. I cannot charge them anything. Think of that. How ridiculous is that? I’m allowed to embargo them. I’m allowed to tell them, “You can’t do business in the United States anymore. We want you out of here.” But if I want to charge them $10, I can’t do that. It’s incorrect. Their decision is incorrect, but it doesn’t matter because we have very powerful alternatives that have been approved by this decision. You know, they’ve been approved by the decision. For those that thought they had us. And they’re saying that I have the absolute right to license, but not the right to charge a license fee. So think of that. I have a right to a license.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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