Donald Trump has vowed to impose a 10 per cent “global tariff” using an alternative law after the Supreme Court ruled his sweeping duties were illegal.
Speaking at a news conference after Friday’s historic rebuke from the US top court, the president said: “Other options will now be used to replace those new options that the court has wrongfully rejected.”
“We have options, the best option could be more money, we will take more money,” he said.
Trump said he would impose a 10 percent levy on top of “the general tariffs we are already charging” using the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose import restrictions for up to 150 days.
It was not immediately clear which existing duties he was referring to.
Earlier on Friday, Supreme Court Government The 6-3 vote said Trump exceeded his authority in using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on dozens of countries.
The decision is the first significant defeat in court for Trump, who has had several victories in previous cases, including the deportation of immigrants.
In its decision, the Supreme Court said: “Our task today is simply to decide whether the power to ‘regulate imports’, as given to the President in the IEEPA, embraces the power to impose tariffs. It does not.”
Trump criticized the decision on Friday, saying it was extremely disappointing and that he was ashamed of some members of the court.
The decision, which covers most of the duties imposed by the White House, also threatens to cause significant disruption to America’s trading partners and companies around the world.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the majority. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
The Supreme Court has not ruled on whether the US should return the revenues raised from the duties.
In his dissenting opinion, Kavanaugh wrote: “The Court has said nothing today about whether, and if so, the Government should return the billions of dollars collected from importers.”
The case was brought by groups of American businesses, including 12 US states, who argued that they were harmed by the tariffs.
In its decision, the court noted that “in IEEPA’s ‘half century of existence’, no president has used a statute to impose any tariffs – let alone a tariff of this magnitude and scope”.
Trump announced his tariff regime on “Emancipation Day” last April, sending financial markets into a tailspin for weeks and worrying US allies.
Although he has since held back from imposing some of the most severe tariffs, the US ends 2025 with an effective tariff rate of more than 10 percent – ​​the highest since the Second World War.
The reaction in the markets was relatively slow. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose sharply, gaining 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. The dollar index declined 0.2 percent and yields on two-year Treasuries were fractionally higher.
Jason Borbora-Sheen, portfolio manager at Ninety One, said the response indicated that the outcome was “largely as expected… and the administration had some time to plan its response”.
The stock market has hit record highs since “Liberation Day,” but polls indicate that many Americans feel the tariffs are hurting the country’s economy.
