Staff Reports
Today’s Supreme Court decision striking down the White House’s use of emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs was a shocking display of judicial carpentry that left millions of Americans exposed to unfair trade practices. Rather than accept a defeat, President Trump moved quickly and decisively, railing against the verdict and promising alternatives that put American workers first.
Within hours the president announced a new 10 percent global tariff to sit on top of existing levies, invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act as a lawful pathway to protect U.S. industry while the administration retools its strategy. He didn’t whisper this move — he declared it, saying the administration will pursue powerful alternatives and signaling that Washington will not cede the field to foreign competitors.
Conservatives should applaud the instinct behind this action: when courts try to tie the hands of the executive, a president who loves this country finds lawful means to defend its people and economy. The trade court and lower rulings have already wrestled with the limits of emergency authority, and Section 122 provides a specific, time-limited tool the administration can use to respond to serious balance-of-payments issues.
Critics on the left and inside the business pages will shriek about markets and “uncertainty,” but their hand-wringing rings hollow after decades of outsourcing, factory shutdowns, and hollowed-out communities. This administration is not proposing a costly ideological stunt — it is using every available mechanism to bring manufacturing jobs and negotiating leverage back home, and if that means tougher medicine for bad-faith trading partners, so be it.
Let there be no confusion: Section 122 tariffs are temporary by design, giving the president 150 days to investigate and act while Congress and trade negotiators get to work on long-term fixes. That kind of temporary, surgical use of tariff authority is precisely the sort of muscle a president should flex to protect national interests when other branches or foreign actors fail to play fair.
Patriots and hardworking Americans should stand behind any leader who refuses to watch our industries be gutted on his watch. Fight the predictable chorus of elites who prioritize foreign profits over American families; this is about wages, security, and restoring common-sense fairness to trade — and the fight to put America first is worth every scrap of political heat.
