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Good morning and welcome to the US politics liveblog.
In a late-night social media post, Donald Trump claimed he has the “absolute right” to impose new tariffs following the Supreme Court ruling that many of the import duties he imposed last year were illegal.
My colleague Callum Jones reports that the president attacked the court on Truth Social in a late-night post on Sunday, accusing it of having “unnecessarily RANSACKED” the US and failing to show him sufficient loyalty.
In February, the Supreme Court found that the Trump administration did not provide sufficient legal justification to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies — for many of the tariffs imposed on countries worldwide.
Callum notes that the administration has scrambled in recent weeks to rebuild its controversial trade agenda and regain economic leverage.
In response, Trump swiftly imposed 10% tariffs on goods from much of the world under a different law, section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act. However, these tariffs expire after 150 days, in July. While the president also vowed to raise this temporary duty to 15%, he has yet to do so.
US officials launched a series of trade investigations last week, setting the stage for potential new permanent tariffs to replace those repealed.
In his Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump wrote:
“Our Supreme Court has made these Countries very happy but, as the Court pointed out, I have the absolute right to charge TARIFFS in another form, and have already started to do so.”
Meanwhile, severe weather moving across much of the US has led to the postponement of House votes today, said Tom Emmer, the GOP House majority whip. The first votes in the chamber are now expected to take place on Tuesday.
