President Donald Trump of the United States yesterday attacked the country’s Supreme Court justices over the apex court’s decision to strike down his tariffs.
Speaking during a press briefing at the White House hours after the court struck down his sweeping tariffs, Trump accused the six members of the Supreme Court of being “afraid of doing the right thing”.
He also suggested that the justices involved were motivated by foreign interests.
The president said at a press conference hours after the court’s ruling that he was “ashamed” for the justices who voted against his tariffs.
He singled out the liberal justices who joined three conservatives in blocking the tariffs as a “disgrace to our nation” and attacking the two justices on the court he appointed — Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch — who ruled against him.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” he said.
The court had ruled against Trump in a 6-3 decision that saw Barrett and Gorsuch join with Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices on the bench.
In response to the court’s ruling, Trump announced a new 10 percent global tariff and a commitment to maintain many of the existing tariffs enforced under new statutes.
Trump sought to cast the ruling, which rejected the president’s ability to implement tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as a decision that “made a president’s ability to both regulate trade and impose tariffs more powerful and more crystal clear, rather than less.”
Asked about whether he plans to seek congressional authority to implement tariffs, Trump said “I don’t need to, it’s already been approved.”
Trump attacked the justices who ruled against him in deeply personal terms, suggesting they hated the country and were motivated by foreign powers.
When asked if he had any evidence to prove his claim of foreign influence corrupting the court, Trump told reporters, “you’re going to find out.”
Trump was particularly critical of Barrett and Gorsuch, both of whom he appointed during his first term in the White House.
“He declined to say if he regretted nominating them to the court, but castigated them for siding against him.
“I think it’s an embarrassment to their families,” he said.
“You want to know the truth, the two of them.”
Trump had pleaded with the court to refrain from reversing his tariff-based diplomacy in the months leading up to its ruling, while excoriating the people trying to return that power to Congress.
“Evil, American hating Forces are fighting us at the United States Supreme Court,” he wrote in November on Truth Social. “Pray to God that our Nine Justices will show great wisdom, and do the right thing for America!”
In a 6–3 decision delivered Friday, the court had held that the emergency statute used by the Trump administration could not be stretched to reshape global trade policy.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the Constitution requires clear approval from Congress before a president can exercise such far-reaching economic powers.
“The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope,” Roberts wrote.
“He must identify clear congressional authorisation to exercise it.”
The ruling invalidates tariffs that had become the centre piece of Trump’s second-term economic strategy and a major instrument of his foreign policy. It also represents the first major legal setback for Trump’s expansive interpretation of presidential authority following a series of Supreme Court decisions that had previously favoured him.
American media described the judgment as a significant rebuke. According to the Associated Press, the court stressed that it was not assessing the wisdom of tariffs themselves but the limits of executive power.
“We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs,” Roberts wrote. “We claim only the limited role assigned to us by the Constitution.”
Trump imposed the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), citing emergencies ranging from fentanyl trafficking to trade deficits. It marked the first time in the law’s nearly 50-year history that a president attempted to use it to levy tariffs.
Lower courts had allowed the measures to remain in place while the case was under review. The tariffs, targeting imports from Canada, China, Mexico and dozens of other trading partners, raised costs for businesses and consumers while generating billions of dollars in revenue. Sector-specific tariffs on steel and aluminium, imposed under separate laws, remain unaffected.
In recent weeks, Trump warned that overturning the tariffs would harm the U.S. economy.
“We have taken in, and will soon be receiving, more than 600 billion dollars in tariffs,” he wrote on Truth Social.
On another occasion, he said a ruling against him would leave the country “screwed.”
The decision is expected to trigger a wave of refund claims from companies seeking to recover billions paid under the invalidated tariffs.
U.S. media reported that major firms, including Costco, Toyota group companies and Revlon, had already begun legal moves ahead of the ruling.
Despite the court’s conservative majority, the justices expressed deep concern about the administration’s reliance on repeated emergency declarations to justify a broad economic agenda.
The ruling is likely to intensify debate in Washington over the balance of power between Congress and the presidency, as well as the limits of emergency authority in peacetime.