Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reacted on Friday to the Supreme Court's decision barring the use of emergency economic powers to impose tariffs, during a speech at the Economic Club of Dallas and echoed President Donald Trump's defiance on the subject.
Much like Trump, Bessent vowed that the tariffs will continue — and the Trump administration will simply use other federal statutes than emergency powers to authorize them.
"I would ... like to take a moment to address today's Supreme Court ruling, and I would note that I did not change a single word in my speech post the ruling," said Bessent. "President Trump will always put our national security and Americans first, and as I have said before, the president has multiple tools in his toolbox."
"Let's be clear about what today's ruling was, and what it wasn't," Bessent continued. "Despite the misplaced gloating from Democrats, ill-informed media outlets, and the very people who gutted our industrial base, the court did not rule against President Trump's tariffs. Six justices simply ruled that IEEPA authorities cannot be used to raise even one dollar of revenue. This administration will invoke alternative legal authorities to replace the IEEPA tariffs. We will be leveraging Section 232 and Section 301 tariff authorities that were validated through thousands of legal challenges."
In fact, Bessent promised, the new tariff plan won't even result in a meaningful loss of revenue for the federal government.
"Treasury's estimates show that the use of Section 122 authority, combined with possibly enhanced Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs, will result in virtually unchanged tariff revenue in 2026," he added.
