President Trump warned Tuesday that U.S. national security could be endangered if the Supreme Court rules against his sweeping tariff agenda.
“The biggest threat in history to United States National Security would be a negative decision on Tariffs by the U.S. Supreme Court. We would be financially defenseless,” the president wrote in an early-morning Truth Social post.
“Now Europe is going to Tariffs against China, as they already do against others. We would not be allowed to do what others already do!” he added.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month in a case tied to Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs—an approach that, by several accounts, drew skepticism from the conservative-majority bench.
Meanwhile, the administration’s heightened levies on foreign trade partners have imposed steep, wide-ranging costs on industries such as autos and retail. If the justices ultimately strike the tariffs down, businesses could seek refunds of duties already paid—potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook.
Dozens of major companies have already filed lawsuits seeking reimbursement for the administration’s broad “reciprocal” tariffs.
In a follow-up Truth Social post Tuesday morning, Trump argued the opposite: that tariffs have made the country safer and stronger.
“Because of Tariffs, easily and quickly applied, our National Security has been greatly enhanced, and we have become the financially strongest Country, by far, anywhere in the World,” he wrote.
He went on to claim that only “dark” and “sinister forces” would want to see his policy end.
Business groups and corporate plaintiffs, however, have sharply disputed the White House’s legal rationale—arguing that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not give the president unilateral authority to set trade rates without Congress.
“Because IEEPA does not clearly authorize the President to set tariffs … the Challenged Tariff Orders cannot stand and the defendants are not authorized to implement and collect them,” a lawyer for Costco wrote in the retailer’s lawsuit against the Trump administration.
