WSJ Condemns Trump’s Tariffs: “Someone Should Sue”

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board:

President Trump delayed his Mexico-Canada tariffs again on Thursday—this time for another month. He’s treating the North American economy as a personal plaything, as markets gyrate with each presidential whim. It’s doubtful Mr. Trump even has the power to impose these tariffs, and we hope his afflatus gets a legal challenge.

The Constitution gives power over trade to Congress, which for most of U.S. history wrote tariff law. That changed after the catastrophe of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff, as Congress said stop us before we kill the economy again and ceded authority to the President to negotiate bilateral trade deals. It ceded more power after World War II.

Mr. Trump’s tariffs recall Mr. Biden’s use of emergency power for his Covid vaccine mandate, eviction moratorium and student loan forgiveness. The Court blocked all three under its major questions doctrine, which Justice Neil Gorsuch called ‘a vital check on expansive and aggressive assertions of executive authority.’

If Mr. Trump succeeds in unilaterally imposing tariffs as he sees fit, a future Democratic President will use ’emergency’ power for climate change and much more. Mr. Trump’s order needs a legal challenge.

Read the full editorial.

He is ruining a good economy and the #MurdochJournal only whines, “someone should sue.”

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— Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 5:47 AM