Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Ronald Reagan wasn’t “a strong trade guy” in justifying why a judge appointed by the former president voted to block President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of International Trade, which included a Trump, Reagan, and Obama appointee, voted unanimously to block Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs on Wednesday.

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Lutnick first called the Trump appointee, Timothy M. Reif, a “Democrat judge.”

Lutnick: What you call a Trump judge is just one of these blue slip judges meaning it was a Democrat judge… While we love Ronald Reagan, on trade, he just was not a strong trade guy. pic.twitter.com/ctQjur3lzX

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 29, 2025

“He was not happy with the panel because what you call the ‘Trump judge’ is just one of these blue slip judges, meaning it was a Democrat judge. It was their seat and he just approved their seat, which is the deal with those kind of things,” he said.

He then turned to Reagan and his appointee, Jane A. Restani, who joined the court in 1983. “While we love Ronald Reagan, on trade, he just was not a strong trade guy,” Lutnick said.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, has written that “Reagan’s heart and head were clearly on the side of free trade.”

“While president, he declared in 1986: ‘Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets. I recognize … the inescapable conclusion that all of history has taught: The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations,'” the Cato Institute wrote.

Reagan seemed to believe tariffs would not protect American jobs and would only lead to trade wars, job losses, and shrinking markets. “The memory of all this occurring back in the ’30s made me determined … to spare the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity,” Reagan said in 1987.

The U.S. Court of International Trade’s ruling has been paused in the interim by an appeals court that reinstated the Trump tariffs temporarily.

Thursday’s ruling from the appeals court could be appealed to the Supreme Court, in which the Trump administration is confident it would prevail.

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“He’s been through this kinda stuff before, he’s confident on appeal, he’s confident at the Supreme Court, and I think he knows he’s going to win because he’s got to protect the American people,” Lutnick said.

Trump blamed the conservative Federalist Society for pointing him to the wrong judges. “I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten!” he wrote in a Truth Social post.