Tariff Upheaval
So. Much. Turmoil. After the Supreme Court ruled that the emergency powers available to presidents don’t extend to taxing imports, we saw a weekend of reaction, confusion, and recalibration.
The European Union is poised to freeze its trade deal with the US and is seeking more details on the new tariff program President Donald Trump announced after his court defeat.
Trump initially said he would institute a 10% global tariff, then said he would push that rate to 15%, stirring up more economic turbulence and uncertainty.
To set the new levy, Trump declared the US is facing a profound crisis in international payments, but economists and financial markets — so far — don’t see the world’s largest economy teetering on any such precipice. So that invocation of presidential power seems likely to face another legal challenge.
Meanwhile, companies will be in a hurry for clarity on how to get their tariff money back. The government may need to rebate as much as $170 billion. The process, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his dissent, is “likely to be a ‘mess.’”
Learn more about the tariff case’s successful plaintiff in this Big Take Podcast, and you can dig deeper into the decision’s China, UK, Japan, and India ramifications:
- China Monitoring Trump’s New Trade Moves After US Court Defeat
- UK Risks Being the Biggest Loser From Trump’s Tariff Changes
- Japan’s Ruling Party Tax Chief Calls US Tariff Situation ‘Messy’
- India Postpones US Trip to Finalize Trade Pact on Tariff Ruling
BGOV subscribers, this morning’s Congress Tracker looks at what to expect on the tariff front on Capitol Hill.
Trump’s Revenge
Circle June 30 on the political calendar for a new gauge of Trump’s popularity. That’s when Republican freshman Rep. Jeff Hurd is on the primary ballot, and over the weekend the president — newly angry about losing the big tariff litigation — sought to punish Hurd for basically agreeing with the Supreme Court.
Trump had endorsed Hurd for re-election, and then over the weekend reversed himself, writing on social media that by voting against the “emergency” tariff on Canadian goods, Hurd “is more interested in protecting Foreign Countries that have been ripping us off for decades than he is the United States of America.”
Hurd was one of six GOP lawmakers who voted to end the Canadian tariffs, writing at the time, “If we normalize broad emergency trade powers today, we should expect that a future president — of either party — will rely on the same authority in ways many of us would strongly oppose.”
In a social media post yesterday, Hurd didn’t directly mention tariffs or Trump, writing: “Leadership requires independent judgment and the willingness to stand on principle. My focus remains on delivering results for rural Colorado.” Read More
Also Read: Ballooning Health Premiums Sharpen Midterm Campaign Messaging
Flex Against Netflix
Former President Barack Obama national security adviser and United Nations ambassador Susan Rice has been on the board of Netflix since 2023. Now Trump wants Rice gone, or else — though the “else” part isn’t yet defined.
Appearing on a podcast last week, Rice said that the political pendulum will swing, and organizations that folded to Trump “are going to be caught with more than their pants down.”
“They’re going to be held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box,” she said.
Sam Kim reports that one of Trump’s weekend social media posts called Rice “purely a political hack” with “no talent or skills” and said Netflix should fire her or “pay the consequences.”
Trump previously said that he would stay out of the Justice Department’s review of Netflix’s proposed $72 billion acquisition of Warner Bros., so the fill-in-the-blank threat raises more eyebrows than it otherwise would. Read More
They’re Back
The congressional recess is ending, though thanks to the weather, the week on the Hill is going to start out on the slow side. Lawmakers’ main agenda items are tomorrow’s State of the Union address and resolving the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security,
Zach C. Cohen reports that negotiators will be under a little more pressure as affected federal workers miss out on pay.
See Also:
- DHS Reverses Suspension of PreCheck as It Takes Shutdown Steps
- BGOV OnPoint: Homeland Bill Proves Final FY 2026 Funding Hurdle
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