SCOTUS slaps down Trump's tariffs, but it may be too late to save a fractured economy

On Friday morning, the Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump lacks the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs. In a 6-3 decision, the Court confirmed that tariffs are taxes, taxing power lies with Congress, and without clear authorization, Trump doesn't have the authority to throw down a tax at will.

The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it. … We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] does not authorize the President to impose tariffs

What this means for the roughly $124 billion dollars in tariffs that have already been collected, 90% of which have been paid by American consumers and businesses, isn't clear. Maybe we will finally get one of those checks with Trump's name on it after all.

Joining all three liberal justices in the decision were Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the opinion. All of them can now expect to be on Trump's naughty list. As the Cato Institute points out, Trump may try to immediately reinstitute the tariffs, citing powers given the president under the Trade Act of 1974.

It's likely this is just the first of several rounds.

This ruling comes just as several major companies had made it clear they were done "eating Trump's tariffs" and were about to raise prices significantly. However, terrific as this news may be, it's not clear that SCOTUS has acted in time — or on enough points — to stop an economic disaster already in progress.

The economy is not the most important issue facing American voters as we head toward the 2026 midterm elections. With paramilitary forces rampaging through American streets, corruption running rampant, a billionaire sex trafficking ring going unpunished, and a despotic tyrant sleeping through his $1 billion a seat luncheon, the price of eggs should be way down the list of concerns.

And it is. It's been a couple of months since Gallup last published its poll of issues most important to Americans, but in December, the top concern of the American people was what they were seeing from the White House.

• The government/poor leadership – 26%
• Immigration – 19%
• The economy in general – 17%

Add up everything that falls under the economic banner — inflation, wages, unemployment, etc. – and the total is still only 35%. Three times as many people put racism at the top of their list as those who fretted over taxes. Four times as many were worried about homelessness as the federal deficit. "Affordability" may be the biggest campaign buzzword of the season, but candidates should understand that this time around, the price of breakfast is far from the only concern of their voters.

However, cowardly and short-sighted as the idea of repeating "affordility" while ignoring everything else may be, by the time the elections roll around, the economy may actually be looming much larger in voters' minds. Because no matter how much Donald Trump brags about how he's doing "a great job," the warning bells of a genuine economic implosion are getting louder.

As the Washington Post reports, the final months of 2025 were an economic nose-dive.

The U.S. economy cooled sharply at the end of 2025, with growth slowing to an annual rate of 1.4 percent, as tariffs and a weeks-long government shutdown sapped its earlier momentum.

For most of 2025, the top-line numbers of the economy continued to look solid in spite of Trump's erratic tariff policies and disruptions caused by hateful immigration policies. That's largely due to a single factor: Consumers continued to spend, even when they were increasingly concerned about their ability to afford what they were buying.

The result is an economy that looks good on the surface, but is rotten at its core. Just like our democracy, America's economy is hollowed out — a disaster hiding behind a mask of normalcy.

“The economy appears reasonably strong, but if you take a closer look, things are actually quite wobbly,” said Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust, who puts the chances of an upcoming recession at about 45 percent. “When we look at what’s going on with incredibly low job creation and consumers falling behind on credit cards and mortgages and auto loans, it paints a picture of a much weaker economy.”

Earlier this month, the government revised what turned out to be exceedingly optimistic job numbers for the entire year of 2025 to show a 92% decline in job creation in the first year of Trump.

Billionaires may have been ecstatic over how the tariffs allowed them to pad their pockets, but they did nothing to help rebuild manufacturing in America. Nearly half a million manufacturing jobs went away in 2025. Trump's declared reason for instituting tariffs was to lower the trade deficit; they had the opposite effect. As the BBC reports, America's trade deficit reached record highs under Trump's tariff regime.

The gap between the value of goods imported into the US and American products sold to other countries widened by 2.1% compared to 2024, hitting roughly $1.2 trillion, official figures show.

American consumers are overextended in a market that's creating few jobs and battered by illegal, erratic action. American businesses actually moved more of their work overseas to avoid unpredictable actions at home.

Maybe affordability will be the buzzword of this election … or maybe it will just be "survival."