White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went ballistic over a ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade that struck down President Donald Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to place tariffs on China, Mexico, Canada, and other countries.
Leavitt, addressing reporters from the White House briefing room on Thursday, opened the briefing by saying, “Last night, the Trump administration faced another example of judicial overreach. Using his full and proper legal authority, President Trump imposed universal tariffs and reciprocal tariffs on Liberation Day to address the extraordinary threat to our national security and economy posed by large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits.”
“The president’s rationale for imposing these powerful tariffs was legally sound and grounded in common sense,” Leavitt continued. “President Trump correctly believes that America cannot function safely long term if we are unable to scale advanced domestic manufacturing capacity, have our own critical supply chains, and our defense industrial base is dependent on foreign adversaries.”
On Wednesday night, a panel of three judges from the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that the president improperly used IEEPA to impose tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada for failing to adequately combat human and drug trafficking across America’s borders and Liberation Day tariffs on other countries in an attempt to rebalance the trade deficit.
The conclusion of the ruling read: “IEEPA does not authorize any of the Worldwide, Retaliatory, or Trafficking Tariff Orders. The Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariff Orders exceed any authority granted to the President by IEEPA to regulate importation by means of tariffs. The Trafficking Tariffs fail because they do not deal with the threats set forth in those orders.”
Leavitt claimed these judges “brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump, to stop him from carrying out the mandate that the American people gave him. These judges failed to acknowledge that the president of the United States has core foreign-affairs powers and authority given to him by Congress to protect the United States’ economy and national security.”
“These judges are threatening to undermine the credibility of the United States on the world stage,” Leavitt added. “America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president for that matter, has their sensitive, diplomatic, or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.”
Furthermore, Leavitt argued on the president’s behalf that “Congress had created the National Emergency Act to provide the congressional framework to strike down improper IEEPA use, and any questions over whether President Trump improperly imposed these IEEPA tariffs were already adjudicated in Congress following Liberation Day. Congress firmly rejected an effort led by Sen. Rand Paul [R-Ky.] and Democrats to terminate the president’s reciprocal tariffs.”
In response to the ruling, Leavitt confirmed that “the administration has already filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal and an immediate administrative stay to strike down this decision.”
As the Trump administration continues to battle interventionist judges, Leavitt called on the Supreme Court to “put an end to this for the sake of our Constitution and our country.”