A federal appeals court has granted the White House a temporary reprieve, allowing President Donald Trump’s tariffs on global imports to remain in place. The decision comes after a lower court ruled that Trump overstepped his power by imposing the duties without sufficient input from Congress. The tariffs, a key component of Trump’s agenda, have sparked a trade war and shaken the world economic order.
The Trump administration argued that the lower court’s decision would undermine months of trade negotiations and improperly second-guess the president. “The political branches, not courts, make foreign policy and chart economic policy,” the administration said in its appeal. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt criticized the lower court ruling, stating, “America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president, for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”
Trump himself blasted the lower court ruling, saying, “Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY.” The decision would have voided tariffs imposed on goods from China, Mexico, and Canada, as well as a blanket 10% import tax on goods from countries around the world.
The appeals court decision allows the tariffs to remain in place while the case is litigated, with the next hearing scheduled for June 5. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said, “You can assume that even if we lose [in court], we will do it [tariffs] another way.” The matter is widely expected to end up at the Supreme Court.
Experts are divided on the implications of the ruling. Lawyer Ilya Somin, who worked on the case, said, “It’s not normal for the president of the United States to make such an enormous power grab and start the biggest trade war since the Great Depression.” However, Terry Haines, founder of the Pangaea Policy, believes “the president is probably going to be given the benefit of the doubt” by the courts.
Business owners are cautiously optimistic, with Kara Dyer, owner of Story Time Toys, saying, “I want this to work its way through our court system so we have a little bit more certainty about what tariffs will be in the future.”