Supreme Court justices appointed by the Republican Party are trying to save Donald Trump from himself, a political analyst has claimed.
A recent 6-3 vote against Trump's tariff policy sent the president into a spiral earlier this week, with the administration hitting back by bringing in a global tariff rise of 15%. This percentage increase turned out to be 10% in practice, but it defied the Supreme Court ruling, which states Trump must ask for Congressional approval when instigating his economic plan.
Amanda Marcotte, writing in Salon's Substack, suggested the ruling against Trump's tariffs is more a chance for the Republican appointees to the court to protect the party — and the president — from further damage.
She wrote, "Make no mistake: the three Republican justices who signed off on this decision — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts — are trying to save Trump from himself. Voters hate the tariffs, because they correctly perceive them as a tax that American consumers pay — rather than foreign governments, as Trump falsely claims.
"People are already mad that prices are high, and they can see that Trump is just adding to their woes. Even Fox News polling shows that this is one of Trump’s weakest issues. A smart politician would be grateful that the court gave him a way to drop a terrible policy, without having to admit he screwed up.
"But Trump is nothing if not a painfully stupid narcissist. So he spent the weekend whining about the decision, ultimately imposing a 15% global tariff. Admitting that he’s wrong, even to himself, is intolerable — even if that makes his own voters start to look for ways to pretend they were never all-in on the whole Trump/MAGA thing."
Marcotte went on to suggest Trump may "shoot himself in the foot" by mentioning the tariffs vote in his State of the Union address. But it may be a droll affair all the same for Trump's speech later today.
"I don’t think we’ll see Trump reject his staff’s advice and go way off script, like he does at rallies," Marcotte wrote. "I don’t think we’re going to hear one of his extended rants about how bored he is by all this talk about 'affordability' or how everyone needs to shut up about Jeffrey Epstein.
"I predict that he’ll read off the teleprompter in that bored, sing-songy voice he uses when he’s trying to sound “presidential.” It will be annoying and put people to sleep, but that’s pretty much the idea."
