President Trump says a Supreme Court ruling against his tariffs would cause economic disaster, while planning $2,000 payments to Americans from tariff revenue.
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump warned Monday that the United States faces economic and national security disaster if the Supreme Court rules against his use of emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs.
Trump said his administration plans to issue $2,000 payments to lower- and middle-income Americans using tariff dividends while using remaining proceeds to reduce US debt.
“We’re going to issue a dividend to our middle income people and lower income people – about $2,000 – and we’re going to use the remaining tariffs to lower our debt,” Trump said during a swearing-in ceremony.
His top economic adviser Kevin Hassett told reporters the administration initially planned to use tariff revenues solely for deficit reduction but now sees opportunity for dividend payments due to what he called “a big surge in tax revenues.”
Trump’s poll numbers have weakened amid growing economic concerns and ongoing frustration about inflation with many voters citing affordability in recent Democratic election victories.
The president disputed media reports about potential duty repayments if the Supreme Court agrees with a lower court that his sweeping tariffs were illegal.
During last week’s oral arguments Supreme Court justices expressed doubt about Trump’s authority to impose tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act which contains no tariff references.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested it “could be a mess” for courts to administer refunds to US importers who have paid tariffs declared illegal.
Trump insisted in social media posts that repayment estimates were far too low and required repayments would exceed $2 trillion in tariff revenues and investments.
“They’re not giving the right numbers,” Trump told reporters. “There would be an economic disaster. It would be a national security disaster if we lost the case in the Supreme Court.”
The president hailed what he called declining inflation since he took office arguing food and energy prices were coming down with inflation reaching 1.5% “pretty soon.”
US consumer prices increased slightly less than expected in September as a gasoline cost surge was partially offset by moderating rents and slowing price increases for travel-related categories.
Tariffs on imports continued to raise prices for apparel appliances furniture and sporting goods according to September data.
The Consumer Price Index increased 3.0% in the 12 months through September after advancing 2.9% in August. – Reuters
