Trump Brushes Off Court Smackdown On Tariffs, Declares He’s On A “Mission From God”

The U.S. Court of International Trade blocked the majority of sweeping tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, but it was a ruling he seemed to ignore as he celebrated other “wins.”

On Wednesday, the court found that Trump’s use of an emergency powers law to bypass Congress and impose hefty tariffs exceeded his authority as president.

A three-judge panel found that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) did not grant the president authority to regulate importation with tariffs.

Several lawsuits filed in response to the tariffs, which sparked retaliatory measures, said U.S. trade policy was left dependent on Trump’s whims.

“The Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariff Orders exceed any authority granted to the President by IEEPA to regulate importation by means of tariffs,” the judges wrote.

The panel also ruled that levies on Mexico, Canada, and China to tackle drug trade across the U.S. border “fail because they do not deal with the threats set forth in those orders.”

A 25% tariff on steel, aluminum, and auto parts will remain in place for now, as Trump did not invoke IEEPA to impose those.

The Trump administration has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

While tariffs typically require congressional approval, Trump invoked IEEPA to bypass the check and declared a national economic emergency to tackle trade deficits.

After the ruling, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said: “Foreign countries’ nonreciprocal treatment of the United States has fueled America’s historic and persistent trade deficits.

“These deficits have created a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base—facts that the court did not dispute.”

“It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,” he added.

Amid the ongoing legal battle, Trump appeared content to ignore the ruling, which could have a major impact on his economic plans.

Instead, he took to Truth Social to share photos of himself, saying he was “on a mission from God” and that he was “right about everything.”

He celebrated a “win” against the Pulitzer Prize Board in an ongoing defamation case over The New York Times and The Washington Post winning the National Reporting award in 2018.

Both publications were awarded for investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and looking at links to the Trump campaign.

Trump protested the award and filed a defamation suit after the Pulitzer Prize Board upheld their decision to award the two publications in 2022.

Two separate independent investigations had found no inaccuracies or errors in their reporting, according to The Daily Beast.

The board had asked for proceedings to be put on hold until the end of Trump’s term, but their request was rejected by Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal.

“In a major WIN in our powerful lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board regarding the illegal and defamatory ‘Award’ of their once highly respected ‘Prize,’ to fake, malicious stories on the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, by the Failing New York Times and the Washington Compost, the Florida Appellate Court viciously rejected the Defendants’ corrupt attempt to halt the case,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“Now they admit it was a SCAM, never happened, and their reporting was totally wrong, in fact, the exact opposite of the TRUTH,” he added.

“They’ll have to give back their ‘Award.’ They were awarded for false reporting, and we can’t let that happen in the United States of America.”

Trump also shared an article confirming that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) closed its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) office amid his ongoing battle with Harvard.

He has been attacking Harvard over its DEI programs, claiming they hurt fairness and lower academic standards.

As well as this, the administration is attempting to block Harvard from enrolling international students and has frozen millions in federal grants for the Ivy League university.

Harvard has defended its DEI policies and has refused to back down to Trump, launching a legal challenge in response to his attempt to block foreign student enrollment.

Also on Trump’s late-night Truth Social spree was a reshare of a TikTok amplifying claims that former President Joe Biden relied on an autopen.

The president shared an article about Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte calling on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates and posted two images of himself.

One was captioned, “He’s on a mission from God & nothing can stop what is coming,” while the other read “President Trump was right about everything.”

While Trump did not comment on the new trade tariff ruling, he did find out that his trade plans have a new nickname on Wall Street—‘TACO’ trade.

The phrase stands for “Trump always chickens out,” and it refers to how stocks drop when the administration announces new tariffs and then surge when they are eased.

It comes after high tariffs on China were paused for a 90-day period and Trump announced he would delay tariffs on European goods until July.

The president was not pleased when a reporter informed him of the new acronym at a press conference on Wednesday.

“They’re saying ‘Trump always chickens out’ on the tariff threats and that's why markets are higher this week,” the reporter said. “What’s your response to that?”

“Six months ago this country was stone-cold dead,” Trump replied. “We had a country, people didn’t think it was gonna survive. And you ask a nasty question like that?”

“Don’t ever say what you said,” he complained. “That is a nasty question.”