America's Talking - Judges Question Arguments in Case Over Trump’s Tariff Power

Episode Date: August 3, 2025

(The Center Square) – Appellate court judges scrutinized President Donald Trump's tariff authority on Thursday, asking attorneys on both sides of the case tough questions about the president's authority to restructure global trade without help from Congress. Trump has used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to underpin his "Liberation Day" tariffs. On April 2, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners. He later suspended those higher tariffs but used the threat of higher taxes to get foreign nations to agree to new trade deals. Most of the deals Trump has announced so far come with a 15% import tax on foreign countries, although some face higher rates. Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_c817dfa7-3870-4677-855f-5e05583eb45b.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Brett Rowland. I'm an investigative reporter for the Center Square. Joining me today is Andrew Rice from our national team. How are you doing, Andrew? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm good.

So the biggest news today on tariffs is the extension of talks with Mexico. Tell us what Trump has said about this and why this deal is different than some of the others that he's been able to reach in recent weeks. Right. So Trump announced via his social. media platform, truth social, that he had a conversation with the president of Mexico, Claudia Scheinbaum, and they are extending tariff talks for at least another 90 days. He did open the possibility that it could take longer than that. So they're extending talks for reaching an

official trade deal for another 90 days. However, the tariffs are still being, it is still kept in place on certain imported products. So the 25% tariff against Canada and Mexico, on fentanyl across the northern and southern borders, that will still apply. Mexico will still pay that 25% tariff, as well as a 25% tariff on cars imported, and a 50% tariff on steel, aluminum, and copper that Trump has been working on in recent days. This is different from a lot of other conversations because this is the first announcement of an extension, and there could be more extensions moving forward as this deadline approaches coming forward for tariff deals.

That's very interesting that he would, he sort of signaled that there was some special considerations that he was taking into place with, or taking into account when he deals with Mexico from his true social post this morning. And it's just one of a string of deals he's reached this week. And we've also seen a few more threats as that, Tara is that August 1st deadline comes up.

So we saw threats for Brazil and I think it was one other country. Yes. For threats against India. Yes. There were also threats against India. There was 25% tariff threat against India as well as a potential additional penalty for India's collaboration with Russia. in getting military equipment as well as energy.

So India is part of the BRICS bloc of nations. That includes, you know, it's India, South Africa, Brazil, and Russia and China. So Trump really does seem to be targeting this block of nations. He did say that they are attempting to devalue the dollar, the U.S. dollar, and try to make it less significant in the global economy. So it is really interesting how he's going after. after India as well. And so it provides some interesting context.

I do know there's also additional threats domestically. So what have you heard in this new tariff case that's being talked about domestically? So in court today, there's 11 judges, three lawyers, and they're all talking about tariffs. The hearing is going on as we speak. It's Thursday while we're recording this. So in this case, a group of states and some small businesses have challenged Trump's authority to even implement tariffs in the first place. So the argument is over a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. So Trump has done the bulk of his tariffs under that one single emergency act, which says a couple things, one of which you must have an emergency.

Now, Trump's emergency here is, as you mentioned earlier, Andrew, the fentanyl trafficking, illegal migrant crossings, but also he's saying that trade deficits in themselves are an emergency, essentially that we've reached this tipping point where American military readiness, American manufacturing are all on the line. And if these industries aren't helped in some way, that they'll go away in America won't be able to compete on a world stage with. its military, and that these trade deficits will essentially erode the foundations of the country. Now, the judges had some tough questions about some of these arguments. They had tough questions for everyone who was in the room, so they had tough questions for the states. They had tough questions for the small businesses. And they also had really tough questions for the government. The administration's position here is that Trump has this or almost unbounded authority to issue tariffs when he likes. The opposing sides, those small businesses and states are arguing that Trump

doesn't have that authority and the power to tax or tariff or lies with Congress. So there's some real debate over what it's going to happen next. Based on what I've heard this morning, I have no idea where this ruling's going to go. But I did talk to some experts yesterday who said that they expect a pretty quick ruling here so that, you know, we won't be, we won't be waiting a year or two on this, but maybe a couple of weeks, because essentially this is being fast-tracked because of its importance to the economy. Now, Andrew, I'm going to ask you a couple questions about what you've noticed. So we know that importers of products pay tariffs. We know that the federal government's bringing in a ton of money. Have you seen prices move higher in your

daily life. Right. I would say I have seen it a little bit here and there. I live for context. I live in Washington, D.C. It's an expensive city, I think, no matter what. But I have seen it and it has had, I have had to cut back on certain items at the grocery store. I don't remember the last time I bought eggs, to be honest. Some of those prices have been brought down. And I have seen that, but it has made be more cautious, especially with grocery store decisions. Yeah, I agree. I've been, I drive a 2005 Toyota Prius. It is very old and it's not its last legs. I'm really hoping to avoid buying a car once these tariffs take place. But from what I've seen so far, and even from the sideline car shopping I've been doing, I haven't seen huge increases that I expected yet. So I think that we've seen economists say that there's

some lag time here that a lot of the inventory that stores are carrying now are pre-tariff products that they stocked up while Trump was considering what those rates would be. And so they have a plenty of supply for now. But generally, what we've seen from public companies and economists is that these prices will go up eventually. I guess in my daily life, I haven't really noticed as much. I know that there's some people are coming up with ways to track these prices. increases. I haven't seen anything that quite works yet, but we have seen it show up in some of the federal data so far. So that's interesting. I think that that's all the time we have for today. Andrew, thank you so much for joining me. Listeners can keep up with these stories and more at

thecenter square.com.