Trump threatens countries on tariffs, says he doesn’t need Congress to approve them

President Donald Trump threatened countries with more tariffs and decried the Supreme Court as fallout from the court’s rejection of his sweeping tariffs program stretched into Monday.

The president made it clear in a series of social media posts that he is still seething after the Supreme Court invalidated tariffs he imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — a wartime law that authorizes the president to regulate imports when the country is faced with an “unusual and extraordinary” national security threat.

The decision amounted to a major rebuke of Trump’s perceived executive power and economic agenda. Three Republican-appointed justices — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts — sided with the court’s three Democratic appointees in the Feb. 20 ruling.

“Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to,” Trump said in a Monday post on Truth Social. “BUYER BEWARE!!!”

In the hours after the court’s decision, Trump imposed a 10% global tariff under a different law, section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, before escalating the rate to 15%. But absent an extension from Congress, those tariffs can only remain in effect for 150 days.

The president doubled down Monday on his belief that the executive branch should have unilateral tariff authority and said he does not need Congress to approve the new import taxes.

“As President, I do not have to go back to Congress to get approval of Tariffs. It has already been gotten, in many forms, a long time ago,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “They were also just reaffirmed by the ridiculous and poorly crafted supreme court decision!”

Congress, not the executive branch, holds the primary constitutional authority to impose tariffs. Trump’s threat of a 15% tariff drew criticism from economists and some lawmakers.

“How much leverage do you get from a tariff that disappears in 150 days?” Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, said in a post on X. He noted that 150 days is not enough time to secure the onshore manufacturing that the Trump administration has cited as its reason for imposing import taxes on U.S. trading partners.

The Supreme Court ruling did not directly address the issue of refunding the roughly  $175 billion the Trump administration has collected in IEEPA tariff revenue. The White House punted the question, saying refunds are likely be tied up in further litigation for years to come.

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats have seized on the issue. A group of Senate Democrats introduced a bill Monday to compel Customs and Border Protection to issue refunds to individuals and small businesses over the course of 180 days. The proposed legislation also demands CBP, the federal agency that enforces trade law, pay interest on the refunds. House Democrats have introduced a similar bill.

And Democrats have vowed to block Trump’s 15% global tariff rate from extension when the 150 days expire in June.

“Senate Democrats will continue to fight back against Trump’s tariff tax, and will block any attempt to extend these harmful tariffs when they expire this summer,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Monday. “Democrats will not go along with furthering Trump’s economic carnage.”