The Philip DeFranco Show - Trump MELTDOWN After Losing Supreme Court Tariffs Case

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Watch the full Daily DeFranco Show: https://www.youtube.com/@PhilipDeFranco?sub_confirmation=1 Get More News Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpLB7kBu9O5dbBKhaIOmqcQ?sub_confirmation=1 The Supreme Court has ruled that most of Donald Trump’s tariffs are illegal.But that does not mean he’s gonna stop trying – and in fact he’s already moving to get around the court’s decision. And for all that to make sense a key thing is that this ruling applied specifically to tariffs put in place under something called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Which is a law passed in 1977 giving the President broad economic powers “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat…to the national security, foreign policy or economy” of the country.  It’s a law that has been invoked dozens of times by various presidents to impose sanctions, block transactions, freeze assets, and restrict imports or exports. But – until Trump – nobody had invoked the law to implement tariffs. One, because the law makes absolutely zero mention of that being a thing you can do. And, two, because the Constitution very clearly gives Congress the power to impose taxes – not the president.  And tariffs, of course, they’re just taxes imposed on imported goods.They’re paid by whoever is bringing the goods in. And experts say that cost is often passed on to the consumer – although that’s a concept Trump has long found difficult to grasp. And so he insisted it’d be great for the country when he first invoked the law to put tariffs in place on goods from China, Canada, and Mexico – with the “emergency” having to do with illegal immigration and drug trafficking.  And he did so again in April when he put in place so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from nearly every country on Earth. With the “emergency” this time being the country’s “large and persistent” trade deficits, and the tariffs each country got hit with being based on the size of those deficits. Although, notably, the math the White House used to calculate these figures made almost no economic sense. And, since a trade deficit isn’t inherently a bad thing – you had many experts arguing the policy in general made no economic sense. With opposition coming not only from Democrats but also Libertarian and pro-business groups typically aligned with the Republican party, and polling showing that tariffs also weren’t broadly popular with the general public.  And, ultimately, you had data coming out just this week suggesting they haven’t been all that effective at their stated purpose – with the country’s overall trade deficit reaching a record-high in 2025. But, of course, these tariffs weren’t struck down because they were bad policy, they were struck down because they were illegal. With a 6-3 majority reaffirming that the Constitution “very clearly” gives Congress the power to impose taxes – including tariffs. ——————————     Produced by: Cory Ray, Philip DeFranco Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Jared Paolino, Philip DeFranco ———————————— #USA #America #Tariffs   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I know you didn't expect to see me today, but the Supreme Court just ruled that most of Trump's tariffs are illegal and a six to three decision saying that the Constitution gives Congress the power to impose taxes, not the president. And this is Trump's already collected $133 billion from these illegal tariffs. Democrats are demanding refunds and Trump is melting down, calling it a disgrace, and he's already moving to get around the decision. For all of this to make sense, you need to understand that a key thing is that this ruling applied specifically to tariffs that were put into place under something called the International Emergency Economic Power's Act. That's a law that was passed back in 1977, giving the president broad economic. powers to, quote, deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the country. It's a law that's been invoked dozens of times by

various presidents to impose sanctions, block transactions, freeze assets, and restrict imports or exports. But really until Trump, nobody had invoked the law to implement tariffs. One, because the law makes absolutely zero mention of that being a thing that you can do, and two, because the Constitution very clearly gives Congress the power to impose taxes, not the president. So there's that, and then as far as tariffs, those are just taxes imposed on imported goods. They're paid by whoever is bringing the goods in. actually, an expert saying that the cost is often passed on the consumer, though that is also a concept that Trump has really found difficult to grasp. Instead, insisting, you know, this is just going to be great for the country when he first invoked the law to put tariffs in place on goods from China, Canada, and Mexico,

with the emergency having to do with illegal immigration and drug trafficking. And then he did it again in April when he put in place the so-called reciprocal tariffs on imports from nearly every country on Earth. And the apparent emergency this time was the country's large and persistent trade deficits and tariffs that each country got hit with were based on the size of those deficits. And also, since a trade deficit isn't inherently a bad thing, you had many experts arguing that the policy in general just made no economic sense. And so the opposition to this, it came not only from the Democrats, but also libertarian and pro-business groups typically aligned with the Republican Party. In fact, polling, it showed that tariffs weren't broadly popular with the general public. And then actually, data came out just this week suggesting that they haven't been effective at their stated purpose, with the country's overall trade deficit reaching a record high in 2025. With all that said, right, these tariffs, they weren't struck down because they're bad policy.

They were struck down today because they're just illegal. where you had a six to three majority reaffirming the Constitution very clearly gives Congress the power to impose taxes, including tariffs. Which Justice John Roberts writing the framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the executive branch. The government reads, IEEPA, to give the president power to unilaterally impose unbounded tariffs and change them at will. That view would represent a transformative expansion of the president's authority over tariff policy. And truly, this is very big news. This is the first time that this Supreme Court has definitively struck down one of Trump's second term policies. But then, of course, with this, we've got to talk about the dissenting side.

This wasn't a unanimous decision on the. the dissenting side, you had Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh. With Kavanaugh arguing in his dissent, the tariffs at issue here may or may not be wise policy, but as a matter of text, history, and precedent, they are clearly law. He also took issue with the fact that the majority didn't address whether companies could get refunded for the tariffs, they paid already. While it's higher now, as a December, the Treasury had collected over $133 billion from tariffs imposed under the Emergency Powers Law. With Kavanaugh writing, the court says nothing today about whether and if so how the government should go about returning the billions of dollars

that is collected from importers. But then also acknowledging that process is likely to be a mess, as was acknowledged at oral argument. Though on that note, one of the most vocal anti-tariff organizations in the United States We Pay the Tariffs has already launched a national sign-on letter calling for full, fast, and automatic refunds. With the group's directors saying, today's Supreme Court decision is a tremendous victory for America's small businesses who have been bearing the crushing weight of these tariffs, but then adding, a legal victory is meaningless without actual relief for the businesses that

paid these tariffs. The administration's only responsible course of action now is to establish a fast, efficient, an automatic refund process that returns tariff money to the businesses that paid it. You also had Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren extending a similar argument to the American people writing on Twitter. No Supreme Court decision can undo the massive damage

that Trump's chaotic tariffs have caused. The American people paid for these tariffs and the American people should get their money back. And then on top of that, you had California Governor Gavin Newsom, who state actually sued the federal government over the tariffs explicitly calling on Trump to issue tariff refund checks to Americans. Saying time to pay the piper, Donald.

These tariffs were nothing more than an illegal cash grab that drove up prices and hurt working family so you could wreck long-standing alliances and extort them. Every dollar unlawfully taken must be refunded immediately with interest. Cough up. But also again, right, it's not just the Democrats who are welcoming the Supreme Court's decision here. You had Don Bacon, for example, one of the six House Republicans who recently voted to undo some of Trump's tariffs on Canada saying, the Constitution's checks and balances still works. This was a common sense and straightforward ruling by the Supreme Court and adding,

in the future, Congress should defend its authorities and not just rely on Supreme Court. With an also Senator Rand Paul arguing that the court's decision makes plain what should have been obvious and also arguing that it would prevent Democrats from abusing the emergency powers law in the future writing. This ruling will also prevent a future president such as AOC from using emergency powers to enact socialism. Which also really quick, Rand, that counts as an endorsement, no take-backsees. But also, Rand Paul and Bacon, they're kind of in the minority on the Republican side. And for those Republicans who just really can't get the love and the taste of the boot out of their mouth, the reaction has been different.

Senator Bernie Moreno, for example, described the decision as a betrayal and called on his fellow party members to get to work immediately on a reconciliation bill to codify the tariffs that have made our country, the hottest country on earth. And as far as Trump, he is taking this especially personally. But he previously called the case one of the most important in U.S. history. He also warned that a decision against him would be a, quote, economic and national security disaster with catastrophic consequences and even claiming it would literally destroy the United States of America.

And today when he first heard the news, he reportedly blasted the court's decision as a disgrace. And then he later held a press conference to just absolutely bash the judges who ruled against him. And that includes the two that he appointed. I'm ashamed of certain members of the court. I'm absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what's right for our country. The Democrats on the court are thrilled, but they will automatically vote no. They're an automatic no, just like in Congress. They're an automatic no.

They're against anything that makes America strong, healthy, and great again. They also are a, frankly, disgrace to our nation. They're just being fools and lapdogs for the rhinos. and the radical left Democrats, and not that they should have anything at all to do with it. They're very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution. It's my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement

that is far smaller than people would ever think. And then with all that, he went off on the normal tangents, making baseless claims about election fraud, and he also praised the judges who ruled on his side. I'd like to thank and congratulate justices Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh for their strength and wisdom and love of our country, which is right now very proud of those justices.

And then, notably, you had Trump confirming that he wasn't giving up, saying that he'd be going in a different direction to keep tariffs in plays while continuing to brazenly insist that he can do it without Congress. And understand, none of that comes as a surprise. This is something that we knew the administration had in mind, and even had Kavanaugh arguing in his dissent

that the court's decision is not likely to greatly restrict presidential tariff authority going forward. And that's because the ruling, it doesn't stop Trump from imposing duties under other laws. But what might have surprised some people is just how fast they move. Or with Trump confirming today that tariffs under other measures remain in place and saying that he would be signing orders today to impose a 10% global tariff under Section 122. And that allows the president to issue tariffs to address what's called large and serious United States balance of payments deficits or other situation that present, quote, fundamental international payments problems.

And again, unsurprisingly, this has never been used this way before and it's unclear that this would be legal the way that he's doing it. Also, even if it is, it only allows him to impose those tariffs for 150 days, after which they'd need congressional approval. But then also with this, you had Trump saying that they would use another authority, Section 301, to open investigations into unfair trade practices that could result in even more tariffs. So ultimately, you know, while this is a major blow to Trump and you saw him melt down, it also ends up being a day where it's a reminder that he's willing to defy norms, laws in the Constitution, to get his way. So, you know, something to keep our eyes on as we head into the weekend, though very possibly, depending on a number of things, the conversation is going to very quickly transition. to Iran. But that is a conversation for Monday, Philip DeFranco and Monday you. Love yo faces and I'll see you right back here next time.