President Donald Trump complained on his Truth Social platform Friday afternoon that the Supreme Court should have let his administration keep all the billions of dollars they illegally collected from his "reciprocal tariff" scheme.
"People and Companies that have taken advantage of our Country for decades, because of the horrible and ridiculous United States Supreme Court decision on Tariffs, are now supposed to be given back 159 Billion Dollars," wrote Trump. "All they had to do was one little half sentence, 'that the United States does not have to pay back monies that were already paid' — and our Country would be 159 Billion Dollars richer."
"That’s more than most Countries are worth! Think of it — Just one half sentence, and we would have saved 159 Billion Dollars. Couldn’t they have done that for our Nation?" he added.
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the president doesn't have authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to unilaterally impose new tariffs on other countries, blowing up the trade restrictions Trump had imposed for most of last year.
The ruling doesn't close the door on using other statutes to implement tariffs; however, this process would take longer and be subject to a number of other restrictions.