Following Friday’s Supreme Court ruling that most of President Donald Trump’s “emergency” tariffs weren’t properly authorized, MS NOW senior legal reporter Lisa Rubin predicted he’ll use “other mechanisms” to reimpose them — citing Trump himself.
Rubin discussed the ruling during an appearance on “Ana Cabrera Reports” after Cabrera asked where all the money the government has collected from these tariffs will go and if it will be refunded.
“Those are good and valid questions to ask,” Rubin answered. “And as messy as this opinion is, it gets even messier with respect to the pragmatics of what you just asked, right? How does the money get back?”
The tariffs Trump imposed raised more than $160 billion in revenue for the federal government, and while the Trump administration has previously claimed it would issue refunds if the tariffs were struck down, Trump said Friday that this will have to be litigated.
Rubin also appeared unconvinced that the high court’s ruling will actually stop Trump from imposing tariffs and told Cabrera that “the White House has essentially said, if we lose in the Supreme Court, we have lots of other mechanisms that we can use to impose the same or similar tariffs.”
Trump said in November that he would have to “develop a game two plan” if the Supreme Court ruled against him, and Rubin said she’s waiting “to see how the White House deals with this backlash and what they say their next move is.”
“Because they may claim that there needs to be no interruption in these tariffs, that even though there was no statutory or constitutional justification here for using IEEPA to impose these tariffs, they can just essentially draw on another authority,” she continued.
Trump later confirmed that he has plenty of other “methods” at his disposal — and announced a new global 10% tariff. He railed against the court’s decision on Friday.
“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 during a press conference Friday afternoon.
