Michael REACTS： Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump's Tariffs
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
161.10864
Summary
Trump's tariffs are struck down by the Supreme Court in one of the biggest rulings of the entire Trump administration. It's a blow to the credibility of the administration and the economy, and a huge blow to Trump's economic agenda.
Transcript
00:00:00.640
It's the Family and Friends event at Shoppers Drug Mart.
00:00:03.860
Get 20% off almost all regular-priced merchandise.
00:00:08.160
Tuesday, February 24th, and Wednesday, February 25th.
00:00:19.260
everything takes on a creamy, delicious, chocolatey glow.
00:00:32.140
So I'm in an airport, but leave it to the Supreme Court
00:00:38.080
by issuing one of the biggest rulings of the entire Trump administration
00:00:45.920
The Supreme Court struck down President Trump's tariffs.
00:00:49.020
The tariffs are one of, if not the central part,
00:01:04.020
You had the squishy conservatives plus all the liberals
00:01:14.180
especially Alito and Thomas, joined by Kavanaugh,
00:01:19.260
The majority opinion, John Roberts, Chief Justice,
00:01:23.640
argues that Congress did not clearly delegate the power
00:01:28.360
to implement these tariffs to the executive branch
00:01:33.860
which is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
00:01:40.160
He says, because Congress did not clearly delegate this power to the president,
00:01:46.980
Now, the conservatives in the majority relied on the major questions doctrine.
00:01:52.520
The major questions doctrine was first really articulated in the 1980s,
00:01:57.060
but it doesn't really pick up steam until 2000.
00:01:59.660
It's not really articulated seriously in scholarship until 2008,
00:02:04.120
and then it gave its winespring currency in 2013.
00:02:12.620
that on major questions of economic and political importance,
00:02:17.060
the Congress has to really clearly delegate these certain powers.
00:02:20.280
Okay, the liberals who joined the squishy conservatives in the opinion,
00:02:27.980
but we don't agree on the major questions doctrine,
00:02:33.000
which is Clarence Thomas and Alito and Kavanaugh.
00:02:36.860
And Clarence Thomas just gives a master class in his dissent.
00:02:39.760
I haven't gone through the whole opinion, obviously, yet,
00:02:44.640
Clarence Thomas cites precedent going back to 1790
00:02:47.400
that Trump did, in fact, have the right to implement these tariffs.
00:02:57.080
which are based on similar reasoning to the tariffs that Trump implemented.
00:03:03.680
So he gives this really beautiful historical precedent,
00:03:15.620
and obviously I want to dig a little bit more into the text.
00:03:21.440
Now, practically, it doesn't mean that all of his tariffs are struck down,
00:03:24.300
and it doesn't mean that he can't even maintain the tariffs that he currently has,
00:03:29.920
albeit using different laws and different reasoning.
00:03:33.460
and it's a huge blow to the credibility of the United States.
00:03:36.880
We've been negotiating all sorts of trade deals predicated on these tariffs,
00:03:41.540
were being used as negotiating leverage by Trump.
00:03:43.840
The Supreme Court just totally blows that up for what is, in my opinion,
00:03:50.360
Now, the squishy Republicans in general, not on the court, just in public,
00:03:55.160
are going to love this because the squishy Republicans hate the tariffs
00:03:57.860
because the squishy Republicans basically just want to go back to 1990s Democrat liberalism.
00:04:03.600
And they think that's the high point of human civilization.
00:04:06.260
And so they're actually probably going to be cheering it,
00:04:08.180
and some of them are going to argue that actually the Supreme Court just helped Trump
00:04:11.320
because by striking down his tariffs, they gave him better economic policies,
00:04:15.480
and that's going to work out better for Trump in the end.
00:04:18.140
I'm a little skeptical of that because I think tariffs can have really strong economic power.
00:04:23.160
And I think Trump's proven that because he's beaten all of the expectations over the past year.
00:04:28.860
It's a little over a year now of his administration
00:04:31.080
where all the experts said that the tariffs were going to destroy the economy.
00:04:42.780
So the Trump agenda on economics is not totally destroyed,
00:04:50.160
And for those who are not lawyers, I'm not a lawyer.
00:04:55.600
I haven't even finished reading the whole opinion yet
00:04:58.120
But a good rule of thumb is when Justice Sam Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas
00:05:05.660
agree on a matter of law and the judiciary, they're probably right.
00:05:13.720
And then if you read their dissents in this case, you will be persuaded of that.
00:05:17.540
And the libs are always wrong and the squishy people in the middle are often wrong.
00:05:24.200
So an unfortunate decision to come from the Supreme Court creates a diplomatic nightmare
00:05:29.440
for the Trump administration, might cause a lot of economic chaos.
00:05:34.280
It's legally not quite sound if you read the majority opinion versus the dissents.
00:05:46.940
And maybe if there's any silver lining in the storm cloud,
00:05:50.460
maybe a little more reason for the Republicans to be concerned about November
00:05:55.940
because the wins that we've secured over the last year are anything but stable.
00:06:02.140
More on Monday, but for now, coming live from an airport.
00:06:08.600
That's my take on the biggest Supreme Court decision in a very long time.
00:06:12.980
The 2026 Maverick with Ford Flex Bed Storage System.
00:06:21.380
For those that see more than a stack of lumber.
00:06:34.640
Right now, get purchase financing from 4.99% APR for up to 72 months on all 2026 Maverick models.
00:06:40.940
Visit your Toronto area Ford store or Ford.ca today.