Name: Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-02-20T17:02:35.000Z
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supreme Court has ruled against Donald Trump's global tariffs, enacted back in April under federal law meant for national emergencies.

These the pictures live from the Supreme Court.

We've been expecting that ruling for a number of weeks, and it's been held back and held back.

It has just emerged and is significant because Donald Trump has lost.

And of course, you will remember that tariffs have been his go to policy, his weapon he has used so many times.

It started, you will remember back in April what he described as Liberation Day, when he announced the whole sweeping range of tariffs for all sorts of countries with a basic baseline of 10%.

You'll remember the pictures from the Rose Garden in the White House where Donald Trump was there with his blackboard and a variety of figures for different countries in terms of the tariffs announced, and

one remembers at the time a baseline of 10%.

Then over the days, it became clear, the European Union, for example, 20%.

But some of the highest tariffs, Cambodia, that was 49%.

And other countries where it just was significantly higher.

China, of course, the central focus for Donald Trump at different stages, that ratcheted up to over 100% as you had tariffs and then counter tariffs announced by Beijing that continued to ratchet up until it was cooled down.

You remember them from April, where the president had the list of countries and went through them.

Now, it is really significant because a number of announcements were made, some a very narrow amount of tariffs, the steel tariffs, for example.

Here he did apparently have the power to do that.

All the rest were being tested by the Supreme Court.

And that, of course, has huge amounts of ramifications because it begs the question, what happens now?

Only about what, a month ago, six weeks ago, in anticipation of this ruling, Donald Trump posted a long post on Truth Social which ended with, if the Supreme Court rules against us, the country is screwed.

That's what he said at the time, because it opens the door to all sorts of questions about should the monies raised by tariffs now be returned?

What happens to the legality of what has been done so far?

Where does that leave all those companies that have changed the way they export to the US because of those tariffs?

Where does it actually leave Donald Trump with the use of, of that weapon?

We've seen at different stages, Donald Trump imposed tariffs when he's not liked the policies that countries are actually carrying out.

So one remembers when it came to the issue and the debate and the controversy around Greenland, suddenly the president slapping on extra tariffs to European countries that never got implemented.

But it was the weapon that he continued to go back to.

And the same was true about Brazil and the former President Bolsonaro around his trial.

So it is the weapon that Donald Trump has consistently used in this, the second term.

And the U. S. supreme Court ruling against Donald Trump's global tariffs.

I just want to quickly take you to the markets boards to see if there's any particular reaction there.

And of course, it's only been open what sort of 35 minutes still up.

So we shall see if there is movement on that board.

But it is a significant moment that the Supreme Court that has looked at this, it looked at it, I think initially about two to three months ago.

There's been a little amount of back and forth with the White House, but

today we have the ruling and I'll just repeat it for anyone joining us.

The US Supreme Court ruling against Donald Trump's global tariffs enacted under federal law meant for national emergencies.

And of course, the point has been made that at no stage did Donald Trump go back to Congress, say, look, this is the situation.

I want to implement tariffs and go through Congress.

These were just moves made from the White House and the Supreme Court ruling against that.

In a moment, I'll talk to Justin Wolfers.

He has talked to me so many times along the way, professor of economics.

When we've talked tariffs in the past, I think the line has been established to him.

So let's bring him in to the conversation.

Your initial reaction to this breaking development.

I can't tell you what should have happened, but

I can tell you that the Emergency Powers act doesn't use the word tariff.

The Constitution gives the right to tariffs and all taxes to Congress.

This decision doesn't say you can't issue tariffs.

It says the president has to go through Congress to do it.

So it's all about the unilateral power of our king over here.

And I think what you're going to see very quickly is a very positive reaction from global markets.

That's markets telling you that the president's signature policy that he fought so hard for to help American businesses, markets believe it hurts American businesses.

That's pretty interesting because we were showing the markets board and they were still up.

So you would expect a positive response from the markets, not a Negative one.

I'll touch on that in a moment in more detail.

But in terms of the fallout, because Donald Trump, I mentioned it, I don't know if you heard me saying it.

There was that long post a few weeks ago where he ended saying the problems it would cause the U. S.

And I've, I've cleaned up the language he used, but

he was talking about it costing trillions of dollars to the US potentially.

I was just making the point that in one of the posts recently, Donald Trump said if this ruling went against him, it would cost the US trillions of dollars.

Do you think that is realistically what we potentially could be looking at?

So first of all, what you've got there is a bloke who doesn't know the difference between billions and trillions.

And secondly, this is just a bloke who doesn't like permission.

You ask Congress to pass a law, turns out it's a Republican controlled Congress.

If it's such a good idea, all he's got to do is have the argument with his own party and win it.

If he can't do that, you've got to think it's a pretty bad argument.

A final quick question to you before I bring in Gary o', Donoghue, our correspondent.

What happens to all those firms, countries that have been paying the tariffs, if there's not a way of actually getting this through Congress to get to the same point we're at now?

Are they entitled to try and ask for that money back?

Right, so first of all, countries don't pay tariffs.

Who has paid tariffs is the American companies who brought it in.

Now, the decision is about that thick and I went straight from being released to talking to you, so I haven't had a chance to dig into that.

But that's one of the big questions is will people be eligible to get refunds for what happened so far?

But I want to hit you just with one big point.

What if we had a trade war potentially caused much of the world's economy, including the United States, to go down the toilet?

And all along the whole darn thing turned out to be unconstitutional and illegal.

Wow, what a day and what a world we're in.

Justin, hopefully I'll come back to you in a moment or two, but

I want to bring in Gary o', Donoghue, who's there in our Washington office, and

Gary, give me your snapshot assessment in terms of the significance of what we've just heard.

One of the biggest cases of either of Donald Trump's terms, for him to lose in the Supreme Court, no question, most certainly the biggest economic case.

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Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court | BBC News

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