explained that<\/a>: \u201cSection 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 directs the President to take measures that may include a temporary import surcharge (tariff) when necessary to address \u201clarge and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits\u2019 or certain other situations that present \u2018fundamental international payments problems.\u2019 Section 122 has never been used, and therefore courts have had no occasion to interpret its language. Some news reports have noted this provision appears to authorize the President to impose across-the-board tariffs on imports in some circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\nThe law does, however, place limits on such tariffs, which may be imposed by the president for \u201ca period not exceeding 150 days\u201d, and are \u201cnot to exceed 15 percent\u201d.<\/p>\n
Canada and Mexico will be exempted from the new temporary duty in alignment with the North American trade pact, the White House said. Also exempt are certain food products, such as beef and tomatoes, and critical minerals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to be a good boy,\u201d Trump said, describing his relative restraint in issuing tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Trump said that tariffs under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 will remain \u201cin place and in full force and effect\u201d.<\/p>\n
During remarks at the White House, Trump said: \u201cIt\u2019s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think.\u201d He cast that influence as social and cultural, saying: \u201cI\u2019m ashamed of certain members of the court. Absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what\u2019s right for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
He praised the three justices who dissented in the opinion: Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote the main dissent, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The others \u2013 including two of his appointees, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch \u2013 drew his derision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just being fools and lapdogs for the Rinos [\u201cRepublicans in name only\u201d] and the radical-left Democrats, and not that they should have anything at all to do with it,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey\u2019re very unpatriotic and disloyal to our constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referring to Barrett and Gorsuch, he described them as \u201can embarrassment to their families\u201d and said they were \u201cbarely\u201d invited to the State of the Union address next week.<\/p>\n
Asked for evidence of foreign influence over the supreme court, Trump replied: \u201cYou\u2019re going to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was amended on 20 February 2026 to correct that Donald Trump called the justices who voted against his tariffs, not the ruling itself, a \u201cdisgrace to our nation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Robert Mackey contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump on Friday railed against the supreme court justices who blocked his use of tariffs, calling them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-309158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}