CHICAGO, February 20, 2026 — Blasting the U.S. Supreme Court’s disallowance of his tariffs as “ridiculous” and possibly traitorous, President Trump said he will keep the surcharges in place and raise them an additional 10% under his authority as the ultimate defender of national security.
He argued that the court’s decision striking down the import surcharges only applied to tariffs that were imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a measure intended to grant a president extraordinary powers during times of economic crisis.
The court decided that the rationale for the tariffs Trump began imposing last April was not consistent with the law and divisions of governmental powers set forth in the U.S. Constitution. The court ruled that tariffs with an open-ended term and protectionist purpose should be the province of Congress, not the Executive Branch.
The President asserted hours after the decision was handed down that the decision in no way constrained him from exercising an authority granted under a 1962 law to impose tariffs or quotas on imports that pose a threat to national security. While the IEEPA is aimed at averting economic disaster, the ‘62 law is intended to enhance the country’s safety defenses.
“The court did not overrule tariffs. It just overruled tariffs under IEEPA,” Trump said during a post-decision press conference. “Now I’m going to go in a different direction, probably a direction I should have gone in the first place, which is even stronger than our original choice.”
It is not clear how the White House’s shift in justification for the tariffs will change the legality of the duties that are now in place. But Trump stated flatly that he would not remove them.
The situation will likely bring court challenges of Trump’s authority to use the tariffs as national security measures. The Supreme Court issued its ruling 10 months after the White House began imposing the protective duties.
The legal process could buy the White House time to legitimize the tariffs by having them sanctioned by Congress via legislation, an outcome that would address the IEEPA issues raised by the Supreme Court.
The press conference held after the ruling provided a vivid indication of how determined Trump is to maintain the tariffs, a cornerstone of his economic policy. The criticism he leveled at the Court’s decision and the six justices in accordance with it was blistering, even by the standards of a White House known for its no-holds-barred attacks on adversaries.
"I’m ashamed, absolutely ashamed of the justices,” Trump said. “They’re a disgrace to our country... They’re very unpatriotic and unloyal to our constitution.”
At other times he referred to them as “fools and lapdogs,” and suggested that some of the six justices who joined the majority decision against tariffs may have been acting as agents of foreign agents that want to see the U.S. fail.
He did not say what justices may have acted traitorously, nor what foreign powers they may have been serving.