Morning Brew Daily - SCOTUS Shuts Down Trump’s Tariffs & TSA PreCheck Pause Causes Confusion

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Episode 785: Neal and Toby discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling to deem Trump’s tariffs as illegal and the potential fallout for the federal government and US companies. Then, the DHS suspended TSA PreCheck and Global Entry, then quickly reversed course, causing a travel whiplash in an already chaotic weekend. Also, the Winter Olympics is wrapping up and its viewership has been on a tear. Meanwhile, do you back into a parking spot or back out? Finally, what you need to know in the week ahead.  Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note⁠⁠⁠  Watch Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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pwc.com slash U.S. slash brew AI. That's pwc.com slash us slash brew AI. Good morning for Daily show. I'm Neil Freyman. And I'm Toby Howell. Today, tariffs have been struck down.

So what now? Then does a green check mark mean nothing anymore? TSA precheck was thrown into chaos. It's Monday, February 23rd. Let's ride. Good Monday morning from my couch in Brooklyn. Yes, it is a home pod since we couldn't make it into the studio on account of the blizzard raging outside. I can't really tell you how bad it is

because my window is caked in ice, but it's expected to be one of the biggest snowstorms in years. Along the eastern seaboard, over 40 million people were under blizzard warnings, and places in New Jersey and New York have already received over 12 inches. Some spots in Massachusetts are projected to get over two feet when all is said and done. Travel is, unsurprisingly, not happening. Most mass transit is shut down in the tri-state area, while over 4,200 flights. have already been canceled, including Toby's back from the Midwest, where he is now, aren't you Toby? I mean, I miss Florida.

I have to say it at this point because how many more storms of the century can we have in one winter? I was doing some research what makes a snowstorm a blizzard, and there is an exact definition. It is only if the snow reduces visibility to a quarter mile or less for three hours or longer, and there's sustained winds of 35 miles per hour or. greater. That's according to the National Weather Service. And I looked as of this morning, the winds have not exceeded 35 miles an hour. So right now, Neil, you are not under a blizzard warning. So I don't know where all the complaining is coming from. It's just a big snowstorm.

Also, if you're looking for something to do other than watch, love is blind. The Department of Sanitation is offering $19.14 per hour of shoveling plus overtime to be an emergency shoveler. So break out those gloves, Neil. Okay. The Supreme Court has struck down the majority of President Trump's tariffs. But what happens next is more confusing than when your brother tries to teach you a new board game. On Friday, in a 6-3 landmark decision, the Supreme Court justices ruled that Trump exceeded his authority by issuing sweeping global reciprocal tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which does not contain the word tariff. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said, in light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that

asserted authority, he, the president, must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it. Roberts wrote, the IEEPA law falls short. It is a seismic rebuke of Trump's signature economic policy, one that he aimed to use to boost American manufacturing, raise money for the government, and wield as a geopolitical tool. And he was not happy when the ruling came down. Trump called some of the justices, frankly, a disgrace to our nation and vowed to continue his tariffs by invoking other laws. He did just that hours after the decision, first announcing a 10% across the board tariff under a different rule than on Saturday jacking it up to 15%. As companies and world leaders figure out what this new tariff means for them, there is the

$170 billion question of refunds. The U.S. government had collected $170 billion from the tariffs that were just declared illegal, but the Supreme Court instructed a lower court to figure out if, when and how any refunds will be delivered to importers that had paid the tariffs. As Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote, that process is likely to be a mess. want to take a quick walk down memory lane here and go through the examples of policy whifflash that we've all been experiencing over the past few months. Liberation Day terrorists were announced with a great fan of air. Then they were paused and they revised and they were revised again. By the estimation of one New York Times columnist, the effective terrorist rate has changed more than

60 times since Trump returned to office. So this is the culmination of a long and winding road that also represents a new road because we have the $170 billion question to answer. That being said, you mentioned that a new tariff rate was already slapped on much of the world. There are a lot of alternative legal pathways that the president is absolutely going to look at. There's section 122, which is what you were mentioning of the Trade Act of 1974. That allows tariffs of up to 15%, but of a duration of only 150 days. there's section 301 tariffs and section 232 tariffs. There will be a quiz on this after the show that allow you to target unfair trade practices.

Those are more legally sound to take longer to carry out. The general vibe here, though, is this fight is not over and in some ways it's just beginning. Yeah, you said culmination. I don't know if that's true at all because section 122, yes, you can impose up to 50% tariffs for 150 days. but that is probably going to face some court challenges as well because that is on some legal shaky footing. It's supposed to deal with a balance of payments deficits that the U.S. has with the rest of the world, not a trade deficit. The U.S. does not have any balance of payment deficits with the rest of the world because that's just a broader concept of trade. It deals with

all economic activity the United States does with the rest of the world. So expect legal challenges there. Let's talk about refunds. Yeah, the U.S. has collected $170 billion through these tariffs that were just struck down. What happens? Well, the Supreme Court just punted the decision. They said, we're not going to deal with this. Lower court, you figure out how this happens. Kavanaugh called it a mess. And even during oral arguments back in the fall when this was happening, all the justices said, yes, if we strike this down, it's going to be complete chaos. That doesn't stop companies from trying to get to the front of the line to get tariffs if, or to get refunds if they do come down the pipe. Over 1,500 companies, including big,

Big names like Costco have already sued to get to the front of the line to make sure they get the refunds when, if, how they should come. But yeah, if there are refunds, we have no idea how they be handed out or when. One quirk of those lawsuits that you mentioned, though, you mentioned Costco as a big retailer, but a lot of other major retailers kind of sat this one out. They were not leaving the charge. I'm thinking of Amazon and a Walmart who essentially decided that it was in, it was their best interest to not alienate the president by trying to get in line for these tariff-free funds

versus actually they're almost willing to eat it in order to stay in the good graces. So that was a quirk that most of the cases that reach the Supreme Court level were brought by smaller companies, smaller importers. So that's just one thing to keep an eye on. The fact, though, that these companies may return some of this money to their balance sheet is what prompted Treasury Secretary Scott was sent to say that a corporate boondoggle maybe on the horizon because if all this money does go back to these companies, that's all gravy, baby. I mean, this is revenue that they did not think that they were going to have.

This was money that they thought went out the door. If that does come back, you could see a nice bump in corporate earnings, especially around some major retailers. And then the final aspect of all this is what happens to all of the trade deals that the Trump administration inked as a result of these tariffs. those are also thrown into uncertainty. The EU already yesterday after the Supreme Court struck down the tariff said, well, we made a agreement with the United States, but right now we're not going to finalize that because we don't have any clarity on what's going on with the United States trade policy.

The chairman of the EU's trade committee said pure customs chaos on the part of the U.S. government is just standard practice now. So they are not going to finalize this particular trade agreement. And also in India, officials said for similar reasons that they're postponing talks in the U.S. on finalizing this trade agreement. So going forward, we have a whole new bout of uncertainty due to the Supreme Court rejecting tariffs. Trump's going to try to put 15% tariffs on the rest of the world, but all of these agreements and the refunds are still a huge question mark. Moving on, hope you were wearing easy to slip on and off shoes if you were traveling this weekend because TSA was. flip-flopping all over the place.

The DHS threw Travelers for a Loop by announcing it would pause TSA pre-check and global entry starting Sunday morning, citing a lapse in funding and the need to refocus personnel on the majority of travelers. But before you could remove your laptop in 3.4-ounce liquids, the decision was reverse with a spokesperson saying, at this time, TSA pre-check remains operational with the organization monitoring certain airports to see if staffing constraints arise. This, of course, was happening right as a once-in-a-generation winter storm was hitting the East Coast. The ingredients for the worst travel weekend in recent memory were downstream of a partial government shutdown that began on Valentine's Day.

Congress was unable to reach a deal on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland of Security, which oversees the TSA, which dragged the agency into an unwanted political kerfuffle. Airlines for America, a trade group representing major carriers, said it's deeply concerned that the traveling public will be once again used as a political football amid another government shutdown. Neil, I'm currently stuck in St. Louis, Missouri, and I feel a bit like a football right now, such a messy weekend. Okay, on a practical level, this makes no sense. If you're trying to get the most bang out of your buck for TSA agents, shutting down pre-check is essentially the complete opposite of what you want to do, because it allows for fewer staff to make it work. It disperses the lines where it's just easy,

year to check in people and get them through security. And then we're talking about global entry. It's almost all fully automated. So observers looking at this from Democrats or Republicans to the airline industry to the travel industry are we're looking at the TSA decision, especially because it came down at such a last minute and didn't give anybody time to prepare and saying this this makes no sense. And once again, the travel industry feels like, yes, it is a political football.

Anytime there is a government shutdown, it feels like TSA agents who we should mention are not being paid right now. They're expected to get their first paycheck a week from Friday or miss their first paycheck a week from Friday. They're not being paid. So the travel industry is sort of complaining and saying, why are we always on the front lines of these political wranglings? And especially when you do something like threatened to shut down pre-check and send airports back into chaos, you know, they are pretty tired of it. They're right. It is definitely a political play because it does make no sense to, you know, expedite travel by canceling the thing that did expedite travel. That did, was more efficient. I mean, we've been through TSA precheck lines. It's pretty good. So both sides

are trying to pin this travel pain on the other in this instance. It is a big deal to shut down TSA precheck, though. Remember, this is the program. It costs about $75 to $85 a year. It has more than 20 million active members. And according to research, precheck members, for 34% of passenger screened at airport checkpoint. So this is a wide-ranging program. It used to be kind of like a fun thing a couple of years ago where you felt like you were beaten the system. Now it's very much a de facto part of traveling.

So to shut that down, even briefly affected a lot of people. Well, maybe we didn't tell you, teach you anything in the last story. But in this story, maybe you learned that the government is partially shut down because I don't think a lot of people know that at least DHS is not being funded. it's not very clear when, you know, Congress, the two sides are very far apart on this, you know, ice spending issue. And hopefully, and what may happen ultimately is that TSA workers, whether precheck is open or not, will start calling out of work like they have done during the last couple of shutdowns that's led to a faster resolution. And the travel industry is saying,

please, can we resolve this as fast as possible? Because the shutdown last fall, which was the longest in history. cause losses of $6.1 billion across the travel industry and related sectors. So they are saying Congress, get your butt back to D.C., which might be a little difficult today, but eventually do that and figure out a compromise so we can start paying our workers again. Yeah, you're right. This shutdown is a lot narrower, though, because it only is impacting an estimated 13% of the civilian federal workforce. And, again, a lot of those visible effects have been limited because, you know, 90% of DHS employees

are deemed essential. going to work anyway. So this is not the government shutdown of, you know, months pass, but still, it is a partial shutdown. Welcome to winners of the weekend, the segment where we pick two things that watched Miracle and got really fired up. I won the pre-show pillow fight, so I get to go first. And my winner is the Olympics. After more than a decade of dwindling relevance, the global sports extravaganza has gotten its mojo back after an epic two weeks in northern Italy, which for a brief moment brought the world and our country together during a tumultuous time. The games wrapped up yesterday with an instantly legendary wrist shot off of Jack Hughes's stick.

The American men's hockey team defeated Canada in overtime for their first gold medal since the Miracle on Ice in 1980. And only two days before, the USA Women's team also clinched the gold with an OT win over Canada. The Olympics Renaissance truly started in Paris two years ago, where the joyful summer games posted an 82% viewership increase over the prior Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The momentum continued in Milan Cortina, which was on pace to nearly double the TV audience from Beijing four years ago. In Italy, everything seemed to align for the Olympics and NBC, which spent $1 billion to broadcast the games. The scandals were petty and captivating as anything you'd see on Bravo, the star power, undeniable, the drama at a fever pitch, and NBC's production, innovative and nearly flawless.

All this despite the winter games featuring obscure quirky sports that few people watch or participate in outside of the Olympics. Toby, when the full viewership data rolls in, we're going to see some massive numbers. It is full steam ahead for Los Angeles in 2028. I think two things sum up this Olympics. Great vibes and just so, so messy. First, we'll start with the vibes. I think it was encapsulated by the fact that NBC decided not to air commercials during yesterday's USA Canada hockey final.

That was a crazy decision because if you go back to 2002 and the two countries face off for Gold in Salt Lake City, 17.1 million viewers. Eight years later, Vancouver, 27.6 million viewers. So that was a lot of revenue that they were potentially sacrificing in order to, you know, bring the best broadcast viewing experience possible. And thank God they did because that game was very fun. But then I also have to talk about the messiness because it was the fun type of messiness, the type that very casual sports fan love it getting into it.

I mean, you likened it to Bravo. and I think that is a perfect analogy. By the way, everyone from the Olympics scandals did great at the Olympics. This comes courtesy of Roger Sherman on X. He pointed this out. He said the Canada Curling won gold after Boop Gate where they were touching, you know, the stone. The cheating confession biathlet won five medals. That's an underrated our storyline.

The credit card fraud by athlete, which we didn't even really touch on, but man, the biathletes were doing something crazy. She won three goals and then the Norwegian crotch, parachute ski jumper, won bronze. So Milan Cortina was messy but thriving. Right. So let's talk about NBC's strategy because over the past few Olympics, they have got this thing down really well to how they're going to broadcast the games. First of all, I just want to say that we're looking at 82% viewership increase for the summer games in Paris, probably 100% for the winter games in Italy over the previous Olympics.

and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that there's no COVID anymore and the time zone is much better in for American viewership at least in Europe than in Asia. So there were some structural factors going into this Olympic viewership increase, but also NBC has just figured out how to put this thing on Peacock. They put all of the live events. Every single one of them you can watch either on Peacock or linear TV. So if you are free during the day, you're not working. You can put that up on your second monitor. And at the same time, they have this beautifully produced program that starts at 8 p.m. in prime time where they do the narrative storylines. You learn about stars like Alyssa Liu and all the scandals that you mentioned, which were extremely petty and fun.

So they've just kind of figured out how to do this Olympic thing in the streaming era. And they're paying over a billion dollars for this. But they're probably saying this is an incredible investment that we just made. And by the way, Team USA did well, too, which brings in more eyeballs. They finished second in the medal table to the powerhouse that is Norway. I did find another interpretation of gold medals at the Olympics, though, that I want to share with you. What if you counted every individual medal given out the Olympics? That means one for each member of a relay team or each member of an ice hockey team.

This is from an ex-account called Sickos community. They did the math. And wouldn't you know it? The United States actually won under this method with 93 total medals. Norway is in second with 58. So when you factor in every single metal hung on every single neck, when it comes to winning hockey, obviously hockey is a massive contributor to that. So if you want to, you know, squint, maybe the United States won the medal count.

All right, we're going to take a quick break and come back with my winner of the weekend. My winner of the weekend is people with good neck mobility because that neck. mobility leads to better reversing while driving. That reversing leads to backing into parking spots, and according to new data, backing into parking spots is on the rise. Long, the stalwart parking method of dudes with lifted Tacomas, all demographics are seeing an uptick thanks to updated AAA guidelines. In 2020, the organization began promoting the back-in method via a curriculum distributed to public and private driving schools nationwide. They framed it as a good idea from a safety perspective because the alternative method, pulling in then backing out, carries a higher crash risk.

Ford Xs provide better visibility of cross traffic and pedestrians compared to whipping it out of a parking spot in reverse. The New York Times put forth another theory for why backing that thing up and in is popular right now, anxiety. Given an overall rise in ambient social anxiety around things like gun violence, a Times report reposits, positioning for a quick exit may offer psychological comfort. One Texas-based security training company recommends tactical parking, which encourages drivers to war game scenarios like,

what if I was being chased? Neil, this is a polarizing issue up there with pineapple on pizza because everyone has to reverse at some point, but when you do it quickly devolves into a much larger debate on immediate ease versus later efficiency. The American public needs to know where you stand. Wouldn't you want to know? I'm not going to give it away yet.

I want to do our due diligence and talk. about the pros and cons of either backing in or pulling in forward. Okay, so the arguments for backing into a parking space, which is what AAA now recommends, it's essentially that it's safer when leaving. So you have full visibility when you're driving forward and leaving a parking spot. You're probably not going to hit as many people as you would if you back up. And also, which is faster if you want to leave a place. And you can understand that in an industrial place, a lot, industrial site, like a factory or any kind of place like that, they actually do have rules that say, if you drive here, you do have to back in because this plant could maybe

explode at some point, so you need to be able to leave quickly. So I guess faster exit and safer exit are the arguments for backing in in the first place. And then the arguments against backing into a parking space is essentially it takes a lot longer and you were disrupting the traffic flow because someone's coming behind you in a parking lot, then they have to wait until you do your whole thing to back into the parking spot. And it is not easy, right? So parking spaces are much more narrower than highway lanes.

They're about 7.5 to 8.5 feet compared to highway lanes, which are 12 feet. So you're maybe, unless you're a really good backer inner, you're going to take your time doing that. And that disrupts the whole flow. So those are the main arguments. I won't tell you where I stand, but I think we should talk about the stereotype of the backer inner.

And critics of the backer inner say that this is just a performance. This is a dominance ritual. Like, I want everyone here to think about the people who do back into parking spaces and see if there is a particular type of personality because I would say there is. I'm thinking about the people that I know who back in. And I'm not going to call them out by name, but I would say it's absolutely some sort of performance or dominance ritual. Not to throw cold water on, you know, your dominance ritual here.

Since 2018, all new vehicles sold in the U.S. are federally required to have backup cameras, which actually narrows the delta on both those methods. You know, it is easier to back in. So maybe you're not blocking traffic as much as, you know, previous backer enters would. And then also when you're backing out, you're not running into as many cars and pedestrians because you also have a backup camera. So basically the safety difference between backing in and back. backing out gets narrower when you have better technology. So maybe this whole debate is moot thanks

to the rise of backup cameras. But I do love the fact that some people told the New York Times in this article that the reason why I back in is because I hate my job. And I just want to get out of there. As soon as I can, you're right. There is this industrial exception as well. My method, because everyone is wondering what Toby Howell does, the man who doesn't own a car in New York city. I like the pull-through method, which is... The pull-through is the best. The pull-through is the best. When you have two parking spaces open, you know, nose to nose, you just ease through the first one. So you're technically have the pull-out capabilities at the end without having to do the back-in whatsoever. And I love a pull-through. I also am not a backer-in.

I think that's crazy to hold up traffic to back-in so you can leave five seconds earlier from the grocery store. I do think it is a show-off method. I'm fully not a backer-inner, and I think those people are kind of crazy personally. And I'm sorry I waited to the entire segment to say that. Okay, finally, it's Monday. So here is what you need to know to stay ahead in the week ahead. Mexico is on knife's edge after government forces launched a raid that killed Nemesio Ruben Osigueres-Servantes, the country's most powerful drug lord, leading to a flare-up in violence in major Mexican cities and tourist hotspots.

Known as the Halisco New Generation cartel, Osiguerra's gang is the top cocaine-smartes, smuggler to the United States and the U.S. had a $15 million bounty on his head. After Osiguerre was killed, armed groups set fire to buildings and cars blocking roads. As the violence escalated, U.S. and Canadian Airlines canceled or diverted flights to Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta and American tourists were told to shelter in place. Right. You mentioned the 15% bounty. According to the White House, U.S. intelligence provided support in this mission that killed the druglor that went by the name of El Mancho. so the U.S. was involved in some capacity,

but really just hoping for the best for Mexican citizens caught up in this violence, as well as any tourists who are going to be affected as well. Tomorrow, President Trump will deliver his annual State of the Union address to the nation where he's expected to focus on economic policies that aim to bring down prices. TBD on how much of the evening will resemble last year's address, which was chaotic. Trump spoke for 100 minutes. A Democratic representative got kicked out of the chamber, and a bunch of progressive lawmakers held up paddles that said,

things like Musk, steals, and false, which were widely seen as cringe. This is also going to be an awkward say of the union. Fourth quarter GDP came in below expectations, so Trump won't be able to quite point to the economic growth he wants to. It's going to be happening amongst a partial government shutdown. And of course, the Supreme Court decision is not going to sit well with Trump at all. How about this for some Olympic level messiness? Supreme Court justices are likely to be in attendance and might sit in the front row. So what was already a high-stakes state of the union ahead of midterm elections will also have the haze

of this Supreme Court tariff rebuke around it and maybe even some like WWE style callouts, you know, face to face. All right. It is a big week for earnings, it always is, when Nvidia steps up to the plate and gives its quarterly state of AI update. Also reporting this week are Salesforce, which has been smacked like other software stocks and retailers, Home Depot, TJX, and Lowe's who will discuss the impact of the terror decision on their outlooks. I'm just going to try to predict the future here. Invidia is going to beat earnings because it always does.

But then Salesforce is also going to beat earnings, and everyone's going to be confused because they thought that AI was going to kill software companies. So who knows? I don't know what's going to happen. I can't predict the future. Who knows? You were just like, here is exactly what's going to happen. I know, but I immediately.

But who knows. I hedged my bets there. But that would be a funny, you know, one, two punch of saying, maybe Salesforce is actually a very widely used software product and isn't going to be killed by some vibe coder in their basement and software's going to be all right. Or maybe it won't happen. We'll see.

So both options. Both options are on the table. Okay. Finally, this week on TV, Survivor 50. The 50th season of CBS's beloved reality show arrives on Wednesday, and they have gone all out assembling an Avengers-level cast of past stars who've appeared on the show, including White-Lotus creator Mike White, Savannah, Louis, and Risgod. Survivors also put.

the season quote in the hands of the fans and has let viewers vote on key elements of the game like immunity idols. I think you would do very, very well because you have the baseline athleticism to, you know, do well in the immunity challenges. And I just think you would, you would play it a little bit more low key than I would. Right. You would give away the game too easily. You would think you would overthink it. You would be foaming at the mouth to win. And everyone would recognize that and kick you off pretty early. But if you can restrain that impulse of yours, I think you could do well because you're just very tactical about it and in a way that I would not be. But yeah, maybe my low-key chill vibes would just kind of simmer under the radar and I would get to the end. Who knows?

That is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. Have a wonderful start to your week. If you want to get in touch, send an email to Morningbrewdaily at morningbrew.com or DM us on Instagram at MB Daily Show. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer, Raymond Lou is our producer. Our associate producers are Olivia Graham and Olivia Lake. Hair makeup was not needed today, thankfully. Devin Emery is our president and our show is a production of Morning Brew. Great. So, Daniel, let's run it back tomorrow.