President Donald Trump and his top officials are scrambling to defend his tariffs after a court ruled against them on Friday.
The Full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling on Friday saying that Trump’s “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs were illegally imposed. Trump immediately said he would appeal the ruling.
On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social and accused the court of being biased against him.
“Without 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,” he said. “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.”
Trump’s across-the-board reciprocal tariffs are a cornerstone of his second presidency, despite the fact that many economic experts say that producers and foreign countries pass the cost of tariffs down to consumers. But the president has repeatedly pushed back on the claim.
Other members of the administration have said that the costs will not be shouldered by consumers, even as the Federal Reserve has warned that the tariffs have contributed to inflation. On Saturday evening, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared on My View with the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who now works for Fox News.
“If they’re so bad, the American consumers paying them, why do we hear the European companies or the Chinese companies or the Chinese complaining about tariffs if it’s all being borne by the American people,” he asked.
After a pause, most of the tariffs resumed earlier this month, with the exception of China due to ongoing negotiations.
But Bessent is not the only person in the administration criticizing the court’s ruling. Peter Navarro, the White House senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing, hit out at the judges during a Sunday Morning Futures appearance on Fox Business.
“This was weaponized partisan injustice at its worst, politicians in black robes,” he said, pointing out how many judges had been appointed by Democratic presidents. Navarro added that the Koch Network, the right-wing billionaire-run organization that has long criticized Trump, backed the lawsuit.
“But the good news is the dissent was very, very strong,” he said. “I think it provides a very clear road map to how the Supreme Court can certainly rule in our favor.”
In addition, the Trump administration put in place a 50 percent tariff on India, which has driven the country closer to China.
The push to keep Trump’s tariffs alive also comes ahead of a crucial economic indicator for the Trump administration. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its jobs report.
The report will be the first one since Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, who was the commissioner for BLS. Trump did so after BLS reported lackluster jobs numbers in July. It also revised down the number of jobs added in May and June by 258,000 lower than reported in the initial numbers.
In response, Trump made Bessent the interim commissioner and also announced his nomination of E.J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation to replace McEntarfer.
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