Trade War Judge Judy, Trump’s Tariff Roasting Just Got Benched?!

I hope you like Judge Judy type government drama’s, because the US just served Donnie Politics for playing a little too Fast & Furious with tariffs. (Next up: Maury reveals which country’s economy he actually fathered.) 

(Source: Giphy) 

All jokes aside, the situation is as follows: A three-judge panel at the Court of International Trade… basically a group project with no snacks… just told Trump to take his “Liberation Day” tariffs and shove them right back where he found them. Why? Well, because apparently, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), does not let the president slap a tariff guillotine on every country with a functioning supply chain. 

The ruling was blunt: “The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority…” Translation: Unfortunately, the Constitution isn’t a Groupon for global trade wars. Meaning, as it stands, Congress is the only gang allowed to set the rules for who pays what when we import a crate of cheap plastic Halloween decorations from somewhere that isn’t Ohio. With that said, this wasn’t just a handful of big corporations with too much time and not enough lawyers on their hands. Instead, the lawsuits came courtesy of the Liberty Justice Center ripping small businesses forced to pay Trump’s tariffs, plus a coalition of US states sick of watching their import bills balloon every time the president got bored on Truth Social. 

(Source: Wall Street Journal) 

Oh, and the courts also iced a separate set of tariffs Trump flung at China, Mexico, and Canada… that was allegedly put in place to stop the “unacceptable flow” of drugs and illegal immigration. On the other hand, anything involving cars, steel, or aluminum is still fair game for now, because those get their own special law. But God forbid we stop the cartels from making America a friggin’ cocaine dream land. 

So with that, what happens now? Well, two things: paperwork and a lot of angry White House staffers pounding Red Bulls and speaking in all caps. The administration gets 10 days to shut down the tariffs, meanwhile, appeal papers are flying out of the West Wing faster than the First Toupe flies in the wind. If Trump loses, US Customs will eventually have to cough up refunds with interest to companies who got hit with the import tax shakedown. Stimmies go brrrr…

(Source: Giphy) 

However, the markets, for their part, took one look and rallied at the relief overnight. US stock futures mooned on the news, which makes sense because every trader with a pulse has PTSD from the last few years of tariff whiplash. “Executive overreach may finally have found its ceiling,” as one asset manager so cheerily put it. (For now. Until the next headline. Or until someone finds a loophole in the back of the IEEPA, probably written by Dick Cheney). 

Now, what are my thoughts on the matter? I’m glad you asked. Look, I’m not going to get to political here, but even if Trump sh*t out a golden egg that would end inflation and close the Federal deficit, people would still be mad. That’s just the reality of America right now. Trump wants our enemies to stop mooching off us, and pay us what we are worth… Others see it as an “executive overreach” (Spoiler: the asset manager who said that probably uses the Apple Card and eats pizza with a fork and a knife). 

(Source: Giphy) 

In the end, U.S. citizens are privileged. And we don’t know what we have until it’s gone, and right now, while every syllable the man speaks “triggers” someone in some way… it’s about time our country grows a pair, and reads the room of global economic threats that are pointing right at us. Just my two cents. Until next time, friends… 

Stocks.News holds positions in Apple as mentioned in the article.