Breaking News from Pod Save America - BREAKING: Trump RAGES After Supreme Court Strikes Down Tariff Plan

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

The Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN Trump’s Tariff plan. Tommy Vietor and Dan Pfeiffer break down the latest. CHECK OUT OUR SPONSOR: ZBIOTICS - http://zbiotics.com/CROOKEDNEWS CODE: CROOKEDNEWS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You talking to me? Kayak, got that right. All right, there we have some truly huge breaking news this morning. The Supreme Court has struck down the majority of President Trump's tariffs. This was a six-three decision. It's the first time that this court has really rebuked President Trump on any major case. The ruling upends the central plank of Trump's economic policy agenda. It upends one of his primary foreign policy tools.

And there are now major questions about what happens to the estimated $240 billion in tariff revenue. That's mostly taxes on us that the U.S. has collected. And of course, there are major political implications. President Trump is clearly quite pissed about this. We'll talk about that in a second. But first, Dan, what's your reaction at the top to this news and what it means for Trump politically? Based on how the Supreme Court has acted towards Trump, dating all the way back to the immunity ruling during the campaign, it's shocking. If you read any of the legal scholars about the incredibly shaky ground in which Trump placed his tariffs, then this really makes sense.

So it's almost, I guess the shocking parties at the Supreme Court made a ruling that legal experts thought they should make when it came to Trump. And notably, it's a six three decision with two of Trump's appointees, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch voting to strike down the terrorists. I mean, it is a devastating blow to Trump. It makes him look weak. It throws his entire economic policy into chaos. It raises real questions about what comes next. and I actually think puts more political pressure on him in ways they're going to matter on them in terms. Yeah, so just a little more context.

So what the court struck down was Trump's use of a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act or AIPA. So under AEPA, the president can take economic actions to respond to, quote, any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States to the national security, foreign policy, or economy. that law is often used by presidents to impose sanctions, maybe on a person or on a country. However, Trump is the first president to use it to impose tariffs, which, as the Supreme Court's confirmed today, is an authority that is very clearly granted to Congress by the Constitution. So this is a quote from the opinion, the majority opinion, I think was authored by John Roberts, quote, the framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the executive branch to the president. The government thus concedes that the president,

it enjoys no inherent authority to impose tariffs during peacetime. So, Dan, like you said at the top, like, I think any legal expert would tell you that this was the obvious decision, but Trump built his entire economic and foreign policy agenda around the authority. Here he is talking about tariffs just yesterday. My favorite word in the whole dictionary is tariff and they got in trouble with, look at all the fake news back there, look at them. I got in trouble.

No, I got in trouble with them. because I said, tariff is my favorite word in the whole dictionary. This is what about family? What about God? What about wife, children? I said, all right, it's my fifth favorite word. Now I'm okay. They've treated me okay since I did that.

That's just a weird quote. It's a very strange thing to say. Strange guy, strange event. Why do you think, why would they do this? It was so obviously unconstitutional, as you said. I mean, why put everything at risk? Huberous, do they think the court just going to bend to their will? like, what's your guess? I think it's a combination of hubris and stupidity. I think hubris in the sense

that they believe the court would do whatever they wanted. And the way Trump acted throughout this suggested he did not believe for one second the court would strike it down because they did really nothing to try to put these tariffs the way he talked about it under the legal framework they discussed. He didn't treat him as national emergencies. He truthed about him, talked about him, as if they were tools of political vengeance. He was using them to respond to angry comments from, comments from foreign leaders and made him angry, you know, actions here, not actual emergencies. Like, there is a, you probably would still lose, but there's a way in which a careful lawyer would structure your public remarks around these to show that they actually meet this very aggressive interpretation

of this older statute. And so that's probably. Also, I think they got a bunch of idiots work in there, and Trump really wanted tariffs, and they wanted give Trump whatever he wants, regardless of the consequences. The way, I think one way to think about how this White House and this administration operates is that everything is in service of getting through the meeting without Trump losing his shit on them. And so he wants tariffs. So what's the best way to give him tariffs? This. So we'll do this and we'll deal with the next temper tantrum if and when the court strikes it down. Yeah. And it's also, it's an authority we can get into it in a minute that he can move on much faster and that would allow him to provide far more sweeping tariffs on a whole bunch

different stuff than some of the other authorities he has. But Dan, let's talk, you know, sort of about the politics of this. So as an American who doesn't want higher taxes, like this is a win for me. As a person who disagrees with the Trump policy agenda, I like to see him lose. So that's a win as well. But as a political professional, I do worry a bit about the court saving Trump from himself because these tariffs were wildly unpopular. There was a pew poll from earlier this month that found 60% of Americans disapproved of Trump's tariffs. That includes 39% who strongly disapproved in 28% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who disapproved

with the tariffs. How worried are you that the Supreme Court is helping Trump politically here? I actually, I see a lot of people saying this on social media. This is the sort of the immediate panic of Democrats is that somehow a giant loss for Trump will turn into a loss for Democrats. I do not believe this is going to help Trump in any way, shape, or form because White House has already signaled that they are now going to use other authorities to to put tariffs back in place. And so now is Trump not just doing tariffs. He is doing tariffs after the court has told him not to.

Republicans in their complete, insane, obsequious behavior towards Trump, like Bernie Moreno, who is running for re-election for Senate in Ohio, who has already declared what Republicans should do is they should vote to codify these tariffs in law and a new reconciliation bill. A bunch of Republicans doing this. it is putting the Republicans in a position through polarization to be more pro-tariff. Like, yes, in a world with a smart, savvy president and a Republican party that could separate its loyalty from Trump from its own political self-interest, this might be something that would

help him. This is not going to help him. It is not helping them. And in the long run, what has happened here because Trump, you know, the clip you played is a perfect example of how Trump talks about tariffs. He talks about it all the time. people don't know what specific products tariffs are on. They just know that prices are up.

And so by making tariffs a central part of his life, by saying it's his favorite word, talking about it all the time, he has basically taken responsibility for all high prices, even ones that have nothing to do with tariffs, like a lot of grocery prices. There's no guarantee that the prices now come down. That's another point.

Prices rarely come down. We're talking about corporations. Like if they can keep their price high, and then pocket more of the margin, they'll absolutely do that. You know, it's like there's no reason to assume that the court just saved Trump. I agree with you. It's silly. There are big questions, though, Dan, about what comes next?

So some of those major questions are what happens with all this tariff revenue, all this tax money that's already been collected? What happens to the deals Trump has already made with foreign countries using threats of the AIPA authority or using, you know, IEPA sanctions? There's another question that you sort of alluded to, which is, is he going to be able to end run this ruling by imposing tariffs using a different legal authority. Dan, do you want to take on any part of that or speculate a bit? Sure. It seems pretty clear that he is going to use other authorities to fill in the gaps here. They said that after the initial court hearing, Jameson Greer, the

trade representative said that the other day. There has definitely been a part of the administration that is preparing for and thinking about a scenario like this and how they can meet the president's desire to continue to raise taxes on Americans, and they are going to do that. I think they're going to do that in a high-profile way. Later today, Caroline Levinson in a press conference, I suspect this is going to be a large part of how they do that. The question with the money is, and this is going to be very messy because you've got a bunch of Americans who gave money to the government. The government illegally took that money. Will the corporations themselves can sue for that money to get it back potentially? We don't know how that would play out. But the people who are the people who

who are probably not going to get any money back, the consumers, people who actually paid the prices. On this refund question, the New York Times reported that there are companies that have already been hiring lawyers and filing lawsuits to try to get refunds if this authority was struck down. That's what led to the original suit to begin with. Yeah, companies like Costco, right, like major, major companies. And to your point on the other tariff authority, I mean, there's another authority called Section 232 tariff authority. The difference is it's much slower, it's more structured, basically the commerce department starts a process to see if some sort of import threatens national security.

That's supposed to start the clock on a process that can take up to 270 days. That report then goes to the president. The president is 90 to say it's 90 days to decide what to do. Trump could speed up all of that. I mean, I guess he could say that was Commerce Secretary just like write down yes on a piece of paper handed over to me. Like that's the report. I don't know if that will impact, make them particularly legally durable.

But there are other ways, as you said, that he can push for more. tariffs. No. And I think he's clearly going to do that. And just ultimately, people don't know which products the tariffs are on. The more Trump talks about tariffs, the more people associate Trump's actions with higher prices. And they assign the blame to him. And that's why he's paid such a price. And it's why the tariffs are so unpopular. It's why voters assign responsibility for this economy and high prices to him at a level that's totally unprecedented for a newly elected president. and it's why his approval rating on the economy is at around 35% in some polls. Yeah, it's not good.

I don't really know what this will mean for the deals or like the framework agreements Trump has already cut with various countries. But it does take away his primary threat and its primary point of leverage in these negotiations. Like he's going to China in April. Remember, Liberation Day initially included like huge tariffs on the Chinese. That lever is gone. And as you made, as you pointed out, I mean, he's going. He's been using these tariffs to tariff countries for reasons that are totally unrelated to trade.

Like in Brazil, he said it was a national emergency that they were prosecuting the former president of the country. That's a personal emergency for Trump. Yeah. A president who attempted an insurrection being charged with a crime. Jaya Bolsonaro down in Brazil did his own January 6th. And what a crazy thing. There was actually accountability for it. They prosecuted him.

Trump didn't like that. Yeah, as you mentioned earlier, he threatened to tariff the Swiss because he didn't like the tone of the... the woman he was speaking to, the leader on the phone. So he's losing a huge stick. Pod Save America Breaking News is brought to you by Zbiotics pre-alcohol. Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works.

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Ready to try it. Go to Zbiotics.com slash crooked news now. You'll get 15% off your first order when you use crooked news at checkout. Plus it's backed by 100% money back guarantee. So there's no risk. Subscriptions are also available for maximum consistency. Remember to head to Zbiotics.com slash crooked news and use the code crooked news at checkout for 15% off. Dan, Do you have any hope that this is a signal that maybe the Supreme Court has found its Cajonese and will stick it to Trump going forward or at least like interpret the Constitution faithfully? I think it suggests that there is a level of absurdity to which they will not go to Cape

up for Trump. That level is pretty low. Like you take it you have to basically fly in the face of all legal precedent and the Constitution and the text of laws to get there, but I guess it should give us some confidence that there is a 6-3 majority to basically do L-1 law school style interpretation of cases. Your lips to God's ears, my friend. Yeah, I mean, this one seemed to be the most cut and dry example, but I don't know. We'll say they've done crazier things. And we still have a voting rights case that could drop any day now. Horrifying voting rights case that we can get into it

later time. Okay, so this is the first. of what I assume will be many episodes will release today about this issue as we learn more information. Thank you for watching this episode of Potta of America here on YouTube. Please subscribe to Potta of America on YouTube. We are trying to build a progressive media company. And why that's so important is because when you go onto YouTube where most people get their news, it is full of right-wing crap from TPA USA or The Daily Wire or Fox News. Dan is watching Fox News. As you do. They have not, like, since I've been watching in the last hour or so, they have not covered this for a second.

They covered the buildup around Iran. They covered bipartisan praise of Trump to release classified documents on alien life. That was another breaking news headline. They also did breaking news. First Lady's inaugural gown showcased at the Smithsonian. That was another headline. Breaking news, President Trump set to visit China at end of March. So that's a month from now.

It doesn't seem on that breaking. So look, that's why you have to support progressive independent news like Harkin Media. Just subscribe to Pod Save America. It's free. It would mean a lot to us. The button is right there. It costs you no money. Just like it. It's free. Thanks for watching. Bye, everyone.