CNN hosts were taken aback by how angry President Donald Trump was Friday after the Supreme Court struck down his tariffs.
Anchors Boris Sanchez and Brianna Keilar were talking to senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes about Trump's reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling — and how noticeably upset he appeared to be during it. Trump called the move "deeply disappointing" during a press conference and his first public reaction to the high court's decision. He also said that the SCOTUS justices who voted against his tariffs are "barely" invited to his State of the Union address next week, saying, "I couldn't care less if they come."
"Yeah, he is clearly angry," Holmes said. "He's been seething about this decision. This is the real core tenet of not just his economic agenda, but really his foreign policy agenda as well. He has used these tariffs as leverage, and he said specifically yes, he is going this alternative route. Yes, he is going to be invoking this 10% global tariffs by using the section 122. We know that they are looking into also using section 301. Those are the things those trade law that they're talking about to get this done. But that being said, the reason that they had gone this route initially was because this was quicker. They wanted this to be done quicker. They wanted to be able to instate this quicker. And that is why you're seeing this frustration from President Trump."
Trump was vocal and expressed his annoyance that he wanted his tariffs to continue despite the high court's decision. He also refused to answer CNN questions during the press briefing, calling the network "fake news."
"And I will say there were several interesting things he said. One, he was asked specifically about the two justices that he appointed to the Supreme Court," Holmes said.
Trump had a scathing comment to the justices he had appointed who voted down his tariffs.
"The question that I had also tried to ask, which is whether or not he regretted it, he wouldn't answer that, but he said it was an embarrassment," Holmes said. "This decision to rule against the tariffs was an embarrassment to their families. We know that he has ranted in the past about Supreme Court justices, particularly those he has appointed, who don't rule in his favor, but it was very clear here today that he was incredibly angry; he was angry at the court. He was angry at the people that he put into place. And he said so much, saying that they should be ashamed of themselves and of this decision that they made."
Trump praised the three justices who dissented from the decision, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who issued a 63-page dissent.
"Now, one of the things we also saw him do was walk through the dissent from Kavanaugh, who obviously ruled in favor of keeping the tariffs or against them being illegal and said that he that Kavanaugh had sort of set up a roadmap for what they were going to be doing now to instate these tariffs and praised Kavanaugh as well also mentioning that all the Supreme Court justices are still invited to the State of the Union, but barely but again, you could see how angry he was," Holmes said. "This is a core part of what they do what he has been doing, both in terms of economic policy, paying for different programs, saying that these tariffs are going to various different programs and bailouts, as well as when he goes into meetings with these foreign leaders using the tariffs as an enormous amount of leverage and really doing so carte blanche until now."