Tariff fight escalates as Trump appeals second court loss

The Trump administration is fighting to pause a second court ruling that blocked President Donald Trump's sweeping and so-called reciprocal tariffs the signature economic program of his second term The administration s new appeal filed Monday in the U S Court of Appeals for the D C Circuit comes less than a week after a very similar court challenge played out in the U S Court of International Agreement CIT in New York and the U S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington At issue in both cases is Trump s use of the International Crisis Economic Powers Act to enact his sweeping Liberation Day tariff plan The plan which Trump publicized on April invokes IEEPA for both his baseline tariff on the greater part U S trading partners and a so-called reciprocal tariff against other countries TRUMP TARIFF PLAN FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE AS COURT BATTLES INTENSIFYTrump s use of the crisis law to invoke widespread tariffs was struck down unanimously last week by the three-judge CIT panel which commented the statute does not give Trump unbounded power to implement tariffs However the decision was almost instantly stayed by the U S Court of Appeals allowing Trump s tariffs to continue But in a lesser-discussed ruling on the very same day U S District Judge Rudolph Contreras an Obama appointee determined that Trump s tariffs were unlawful under IEEPA Since the situation before him had more limited reach than the scenario heard by the CIT plaintiffs in the suit focused on harm to two small businesses versus harm from the broader tariff plan it went almost unnoticed in news headlines But that changed on Monday TRUMP DENOUNCES COURT S 'POLITICAL' TARIFF DECISION CALLS ON SUPREME COURT TO ACT QUICKLYLawyers for the Justice Department inquired the U S Court of Appeals for the D C Circuit a Washington-based but still separate court than the Federal Court of Appeals to promptly stay the judge s ruling They argued in their appeal that the judge s ruling against Trump s use of IEEPA undercuts his ability to use tariffs as a credible threat in bargain talks at a time when such negotiations at present stand at a delicate juncture By holding the tariffs invalid the district court s ruling usurps the President s authority and threatens to disrupt sensitive ongoing negotiations with virtually every trading partner by undercutting the premise of those negotiations that the tariffs are a credible threat Trump lawyers announced in the filing Economists also seemed to share this view that the steep tariffs were more a negotiating tactic than an espousal of actual initiative which they noted in a series of interviews last week with Fox News Digital TRUMP TARIFF PLAN FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE AS COURT BATTLES INTENSIFYThe bottom line for the Trump administration is that they need to get back to a place where they are using these huge reciprocal tariffs and all of that as a negotiating tactic William Cline an economist and senior fellow emeritus at the Peterson Institute for International Economics revealed in an interview Cline noted that this was the framework previously laid out by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who had embraced the tariffs as more of an opening salvo for future arrangement talks including between the U S and China I think the thing to keep in mind there is that Trump and Vance have this view that tariffs are beautiful because they will restore America's Rust Belt jobs and that they'll collect money while they're doing it which will contribute to fiscal advance revealed Cline the former deputy managing director and chief economist of the Institute of International Finance Those are both fantasies What comes next in the matter remains to be seen The White House noted it will take its tariff fight to the Supreme Court if necessary Counsel for the plaintiffs echoed that view in an interview with Fox News But it's unclear if the Supreme Court would choose to take up the scenario which comes at a time when Trump's relationship with the judiciary has come under increasing strain In the weeks since the start of his second White House term lawyers for the Trump administration have filed crisis appeals to the high court indicating both the pace and breadth of the tense court battles