Donald Trump has vowed to impose “even stronger” tariffs on the world despite a landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down much of his taxes on imports.
The US President said he would act immediately to impose fresh 10% tariffs globally, hours after the country’s highest court struck down the “reciprocal” levies he had imposed last year.
Trump said he was “absolutely ashamed” of the six judges who backed the decision and called them a “disgrace to our nation”.
“They’re just being fools and lapdogs for the Rinos [Republicans in name only] and the radical-Left Democrats,” he said.
“It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think.”
He congratulated the three justices who dissented and said there was “no way anyone can argue against” their opinions. One of those justices warned the prospect of refunds worth billions of dollars would have “significant consequences for the US Treasury”.
Trump said the ruling would have foreign countries that had been “ripping off” America “dancing in the streets – but they won’t be dancing for long”.
The President claimed the court ruling actually gave him more power to impose tariffs on America’s trading partners and said he could use various other legal channels to “charge much more than I was charging”.
The Supreme Court ruled the President had no authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
IEEPA was the legal justification for the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs that Trump announced on April 2 last year, as well as for the “fentanyl” tariffs he imposed on China and Mexico.
In a press conference hours after the judgment, Trump vowed to reimpose 10% tariffs on all countries under a separate piece of legislation, the Trade Act of 1974.
Section 122 of the act allows the President to apply tariffs of up to 15% on imports for 150 days to deal with deficits. It can be extended with congressional approval. Trump said the new tariffs would start three days from now.
The President said he would also initiate country-specific tariffs under section 301 of the same act, which allows the US to retaliate if an investigation finds a trading partner has engaged in unreasonable behaviour.
Trump said: “Now I’ll go the way I could have gone originally, which is even stronger than our original choice.”
US trade officials used such investigations as the basis for many of the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods during Trump’s first presidency.
The 10% tariff announced will boost many nations that previously had higher levies in place, such as the European Union, which had a 15% rate, and India, which faced an 18% charge on exports to America.
Britain, which had a 10% baseline levy under the “reciprocal” regime, will technically see no change. However, there is a risk it could lose some of its competitive trading edge as other countries’ tariff barriers fall.
IEEPA levies made up about 60% of the US Treasury’s tariff revenue, some US$175 billion ($292b) to date, and the Supreme Court ruling threatens to blow a significant hole in US public finances.
The Tax Foundation had expected IEEPA tariff revenues to total US$1.4 trillion between 2026 and 2034.
US Government borrowing costs rose slightly while the dollar dipped, falling by 0.17% against a basket of major currencies.
US stocks rose on hopes that businesses would now be able to claim back some of the tariffs they paid under the struck-down regime. The S&P 500 climbed by 0.6% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 0.9%.
Businesses are gearing up to reclaim the $175b but Trump suggested they will face a years-long legal battle to get their cash back.
The Supreme Court did not include any judgment on whether the administration had to give refunds. Trump said: “I guess it has to get litigated ... it’s not discussed, we’ll end up being in court for the next five years.”
The ruling struck a further blow to the US economy, which suffered a shock slowdown at the end of last year, according to official figures released on Friday.
GDP growth slowed to 1.4% in the last three months of 2025, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, down from 4.4% in the previous quarter.
This was far less than the 2.8% economists had been expecting.
Growth slowed to 2.2% overall across 2025, the first year of Trump’s second term, down from 2.8% in 2024, Biden’s last year as President. It marked the slowest annual growth rate since 2022.
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