Trump tariffs as it happened: Supreme Court rules sweeping levies illegal, President vows to impose 10% global tariff

US markets edged higher as investors weighed the Supreme Court’s ruling that Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs was illegal and his vows to find “alternatives” to the levies.

The S&P 500 closed 0.7 per cent higher on Friday and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.9 per cent.

Friday’s move was in stark contrast to the market mood last year when Trump revealed the levies. The S&P 500 tumbled 4.8 per cent on April 3, the session immediately following his “liberation day” tariff announcement and endured a bout of high volatility for more than a week.

The yield on the two-year Treasury note was fractionally higher on Friday, but on par with its level following the release of weaker than expected GDP data this morning and before the release of the Supreme Court ruling.

The dollar was also relatively unmoved but remained about 0.2 per cent lower on the day.

Vice-president JD Vance criticised the Supreme Court on Friday afternoon, describing its tariffs ruling as “lawlessness . . . plain and simple”.

In a post to X, Vance said the ruling’s “only effect” would be to “make it harder for the president to protect American industries and supply chain resiliency”.

But he added that Donald Trump had a “wide range of other tariff powers” that he would use to “defend American workers and advance this administration’s trade priorities”.

Tariff reimbursements could take years to be completed, analysts have warned, as companies line up to claw back funds paid under Donald Trump’s tariff regime.

Shannon Grein at Wells Fargo said refunds would be “handled case by case”, meaning it was unlikely that all tariff revenue collected under emergency powers would be returned.

“Any refunds will arrive gradually,” she said. “Payments are expected to trickle in over months, if not years, and should be delivered directly to the importers who originally paid the tariffs.”

The Supreme Court did not provide any explicit guidance on what the ruling meant for duties already collected, leaving lower courts to determine any payback process. 

Trump said that it was “crazy” the justices had not discussed refunds in their ruling. “We’ll end up being in court for the next five years,” he said.

Market reaction was restrained after the Supreme Court decision. The dollar index is still a touch weaker, down 0.1 per cent for the session. Thirty-year US Treasury yields are up just 0.02 percentage points at 4.73 per cent.

Investors said Friday’s events had added to a pattern of erratic US policymaking.

“It’s more chipping away at [US] policy credibility,” said Trevor Greetham, head of multi-asset at Royal London Asset Management.

Derek Halpenny, head of research in global markets at MUFG, said the US president could “turn even more unpredictable” after his main policy tool has been questioned.

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who attended the Supreme Court hearing on the tariffs, expressed “surprise” with Friday’s verdict. 

“What we saw was a narrowing of the definition of a president to use IEEPA powers,” he said at an event in Dallas. 

Bessent indicated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs had raised $175bn so far, and suggested that refunds were unlikely to be made to companies anytime soon. 

“My sense is that could be dragged out over weeks, months, years,” the Treasury secretary said. “I’ve got a feeling the American people won’t see it.”

US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has claimed tariff revenues will be “virtually unchanged” this year, despite the Supreme Court’s decision to rule against Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to set levies on US imports.

“This administration will invoke alternative legal authorities to replace the IEEPA tariffs. We will be leveraging Section 232 and Section 301 tariff authorities that have been validated through thousands of legal challenges,” Bessent said at an event in Texas.

“Treasury’s estimates show that the use of Section 122 authority, combined with potentially enhanced Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs will result in virtually unchanged tariff revenue in 2026.”

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs have raised more than $133.5bn in customs duties so far and were expected to raise about $300bn over the current fiscal year.

The president announced a new 10 per cent levy on all US imports on Friday afternoon, which is set to come into force three days from now.

Donald Trump said “many” of the trade deals reached by the US would remain intact while others would have to be changed based on the Supreme Court ruling.

“Some of them stand. Many of them stand. Some of them won’t, and they’ll be replaced,” the president said.

When asked if the trade deal with India would be altered, Trump responded: “Nothing changes, they’ll be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs.”

The press conference has now ended.

Donald Trump said the Supreme Court’s ruling would ultimately bring “certainty” to US trade policy, as the administration returned to established statutes to impose tariffs.

“The bottom line is that the word certainty is now in the equation. Every single thing I said today is guaranteed certainty.”

Donald Trump called the Supreme Court’s decision “deeply disappointing”, “ridiculous” and “nonsensical”.

Here are some key passages from the speech, which was also posted to his Truth Social platform:

The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing! I am ashamed of certain members of the Court for not having the courage to do what is right for our country . . . foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic, and dancing in the streets — but they won’t be dancing for long!

It is my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests, and a political movement that is far smaller than people would think — But obnoxious, ignorant, and loud!

To show you how ridiculous the opinion is, the court said that I’m not allowed to charge even $1 to any country under IEEPA, I assume to protect other countries, not the United States which they should be interested in protecting — But I am allowed to cut off any and all trade or business with that same country, even imposing a foreign country destroying embargo, and do anything else I want to do to them — how nonsensical is that?

Donald Trump said the new 10 per cent global tariffs would take effect “in three days from now”.

Donald Trump said it was “crazy” that the Supreme Court did not address whether the administration needed to issue refunds for tariff payments based on the ruling.

“Think of it, they take months and months to write an opinion and they don’t even discuss that point,” the president said.

“We’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars . . . wouldn’t you think they would have put one sentence in there saying that keep the money?” he continued.

“It’s not discussed, we’ll end up being in court for the next five years.”

When Donald Trump was asked to clarify comments that the Supreme Court had been swayed by “foreign interests”, the president said foreign interests had “undue influence” over the justices.

“They have a lot of influence over the Supreme Court, whether it’s through fear or respect or friendships, I don’t know, but I know people that were involved on the other side, and I don’t like them. I think they’re real slime balls.”

Donald Trump praised the conservative justices who voted to uphold his use of tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

They were “great men, with a great love of our country, and a great understanding of the law”, the president said of the justices as he began taking questions from reporters.

Donald Trump said he would impose a 10 per cent “global tariff” above existing US levies.

He said he would use Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to set import restrictions temporarily for up to 150 days.

Trump also said he would initiate new investigations under another statute, which could also lead to a number of additional tariffs on a broad range of countries.

White House communications director Steven Cheung posted a picture to social media of Donald Trump speaking to reporters, with the caption: “Dark MAGA. President Trump will not be stopped.”

US attorney-general Pam Bondi and US trade representative Jamieson Greer are also in attendance at Trump’s press conference.

Donald Trump defended his tariffs strategy, saying he had “very effectively” used them to “make America great again”.

Pointing to a stock market that is hovering near record highs, the president said he had used tariffs to end five overseas wars and reduce the flow of fentanyl into the US by 30 per cent, before continuing to rail against the Court.

Speaking in the White House briefing room, Trump was flanked by Howard Lutnick, his commerce secretary.

Donald Trump said his administration has “alternatives” to the tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court, as his top officials weigh using other statutes to maintain US levies instead of emergency powers.

“Other alternatives will now be used to replace the new ones that the court incorrectly rejected. We have alternatives, great alternatives could be more money, we’ll take in more money.”

Donald Trump launched a bruising assault on the Supreme Court, saying the justices that struck down his tariffs were a “disgrace” and had been swayed by foreign interests.

“This was an important case to me more as a symbol of economic and national security and for the country itself,” he said.

Donald Trump has started speaking at an afternoon press conference, hours after the US Supreme Court ruled his sweeping tariffs were illegal.

Just before he took to the lectern in the White House, the dollar sat 0.2 per cent lower against a basket of peers, and the S&P 500 was 0.3 per cent higher.

Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s former vice-president, praised the Supreme Court ruling as a “victory for the American people and a win for the separation of powers”.

Pence — who fell out with Trump after the January 6 2021 attack on the US Capitol — did not mention his former boss by name. But in a lengthy post to social media on Friday, he said the Supreme Court had “reaffirmed that the Constitution grants Congress — not the President — the power to tax”.

Pence, a former Republican congressman from Indiana, briefly challenged Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, but suspended his campaign several months before the Iowa caucuses. He now runs Advancing American Freedom, a conservative think-tank that promotes open trade among other free-market principles.

Corporate America is lining up for refunds from President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs after the US Supreme Court ruled they were illegal, with more than $130bn at stake.

The US Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation were among the industry groups to immediately push for reimbursement for the billions of dollars in duties paid since Trump’s tariffs took effect last year.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the president overstepped his authority in using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to place new tariffs on dozens of countries.

Read more here

Amazon suppliers said that they were anticipating that the group would seek to leverage the Supreme Court ruling to cut what it pays them for the goods they sell on its ecommerce platform. 

Vendor consultants who act for brands in negotiations with the retailers told the FT that they were monitoring the situation but had yet to receive communication. They noted that Amazon had already sought to reverse concessions made last year due to tariffs.

“Amazon is going to start adding pressure on vendors [to lower costs],” said Martin Heubel, a consultant and former Amazon brand manager. 

Amazon has negotiated aggressively with suppliers to preserve margins and keep prices low amid sweeping tariffs, though chief executive Andy Jassy conceded last month that the measures were pushing up prices. 

Shares in Amazon were trading up more than 1.5 per cent in early-afternoon on Friday. 

European lawmakers, who have yet to approve the EU’s trade deal with the US, will on Monday discuss whether to further delay its implementation.

Bernd Lange, head of the European parliament’s trade committee, posted on X that he had convened a meeting “regarding the Turnberry Deal, in order to assess the impacts on ongoing work”, including whether to hold a planned vote next week.

Under the deal, the EU agreed to pay 15 per cent tariffs on most exports and drop its rates on industrial goods and some agricultural products from the US to zero.

President Donald Trump will hold a press conference at 12.45 ET (17.45 GMT), the White House press secretary has said.

Trump has yet to publicly react to the Supreme Court’s rebuke.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson defended the president’s tariff regime, saying the levies had “brought in billions of dollars and created immense leverage for America’s trade strategy”.

Ontario premier Doug Ford said the US Supreme Court’s decision was “another important victory in the fight against President Trump’s tariffs”.

“But the battle isn’t over yet,” he added on Friday.

The Canadian province accounts for about 40 per cent of the nation’s GDP and is home to 16mn people, who have been severely affected by the US president’s levies and led to layoffs in the car and industrial industries.

“We need to watch how the White House reacts. We need to keep up the fight against tariffs on auto, steel, aluminium and forestry, which remain in place and continue to hurt our workers,” he said.

A minimum of $160bn in tariff revenues taken in by the government over the past year relied on the powers that the Supreme Court has ruled against, experts have estimated.

Analysis of customs data by the Tax Foundation shows tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act brought in $133.5bn through to December 14, accounting for almost three-quarters of the revenue from Donald Trump’s 2025 tariff measures.

That figure has likely since risen to “at least” $160bn, according to Erica York, vice-president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation.

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Several Republican lawmakers praised the Supreme Court for reaffirming Congress’s constitutional role as a co-equal branch of the US government.

John Curtis, the Republican senator from Utah, said that “despite all the noise at the moment”, Friday’s ruling “affirms . . . the founders’ system of checks and balances remains strong nearly 250 years later”.

Don Bacon, a Republican House member from Nebraska, posted an excerpt from Justice Neil Gorsuch’s concurring opinion to social media, calling the analysis “perfect words”.

Gorsuch, who Donald Trump nominated to the court in 2017, offered a staunch defence of the legislative process, calling it a “bulwark of liberty”.

“Most major decisions affecting the rights and responsibilities of the American people . . . are funneled through the legislative process for a reason,” Gorsuch wrote. “Yes, legislating can be hard and take time. And, yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design.”

A senior Trump administration official has urged Americans to have faith in the president’s ability to work around the Supreme Court ruling against his tariffs.

Monica Crowley, who is chief of protocol at the state department, insisted Donald Trump had “plenty of tools in the tariff toolbox”.

“Don’t be a Panican!,” Crowley, who was a Treasury department official in the president’s first administration, wrote in an X post on Friday. “Trust Trump.”

Apple shares rose about 1 per cent following the ruling. The iPhone maker, which relies heavily on manufacturing in China, faced significant disruption last year from tariff risks.

Apple avoided targeted tariffs on iPhones by pledging to invest $600bn in US manufacturing over the next four years.

But it still faced several billion dollars in tariff-related costs in 2025 arising from Donald Trump’s broad 20 per cent emergency “fentanyl” levy on Chinese imports. The administration slashed those tariffs to 10 per cent late last year as part of a broader trade détente with China.

European luxury stocks — a sector heavily exposed to tariffs — have been among the biggest winners after the ruling.

The advance helped France’s Cac 40 index to outperform US and other European equities benchmarks.

Shares of LVMH climbed 4.9 per cent, while Hermès was up 3.8 per cent.

The Supreme Court ruling “lifts a major source of uncertainty for EU exporters, effectively removing the risk of an indiscriminate tariff shock, even if a more surgical framework could still follow”, said Emmanuel Makonga, European equities strategist at Barclays.

The Supreme Court focused on whether President Donald Trump was authorised to use emergency powers to impose tariffs.

It left other questions to lower courts, affirming an appeals court decision that was previously handed down in one of the cases that challenged Trump’s tariffs.

The appeals court for the federal circuit last year held that Trump had exceeded his authority in using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose levies. But it rejected a lower court’s decision to block the tariffs universally and called on it to re-evaluate if and how to impose remedies.

The minister for Canada-US trade, Dominic LeBlanc, said the court’s decision “reinforces Canada’s position that the IEEPA tariffs imposed by the United States are unjustified”.

“While Canada has the best trade deal with the US of any trading partner, we recognise that critical work lies ahead to support Canadian businesses and workers who remain affected by . . . tariffs on steel, aluminium and automotive sectors,” he posted on social media site X.

Tariff revenue had been allotted to pay for some of the US government’s spending bill, but the modest uptick in Treasury yields after the ruling suggests investors do not anticipate a flood of new bond supply to cover the budget shortfall.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose 0.02 percentage points to 4.09 per cent, while the 30-year yield was up 0.04 percentage points to 4.74 per cent. Yields move inversely to prices. 

Ajay Rajadhyaksha, global chair of research at Barclays, said the muted reaction was “appropriate”. He added:

If Trump does not replace the IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] tariffs, that will matter for our fiscal picture . . . but I would be very very surprised if the president doesn’t impose another sort of tariffs, and he has the power to do so. The bond market doesn’t believe that those tariff revenues are gone permanently.

Ian Lyngen, head of US rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets, agreed:

Trump will attempt to find a way to work around, and he’s had a fair amount of time to come up with the plan.

Fiscal hawks in Washington were quick to raise alarm bells about how Friday’s ruling would add to the growing US debt pile.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the US would “now be about $2 trillion deeper in the hole”.

“This is very bad news,” the budget watchdog said in a statement.

“Whatever one feels about the tariffs themselves, the country needs that $2 trillion in fiscal improvements, all of which should be dedicated to deficit reduction,” the committee added.

Separately, Olu Sonola, head of US economic research at Fitch Ratings, said the decision was a “rollback”, implying a drop of more than $200bn in expected annual tariff collections.

The dollar has weakened slightly following the ruling and is now down 0.2 per cent on the day against a basket of peers including the euro and the pound.

A negative ruling was “widely expected”, said Francesco Pesole, FX strategist at ING, but “opens up more uncertainty as the Trump administration tries to reinstate those tariffs”.

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The biggest corporate lobby group in the US has hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling on Donald Trump’s tariffs, saying it is “welcome news” for the country’s businesses and consumers.

The US Chamber of Commerce said small and mid-size businesses have experienced “significant cost increases and supply chain disruptions” over the past year as a result of the tariffs.

“Swift refunds of the impermissible tariffs will be meaningful for the more than 200,000 small business importers in this country and will help support stronger economic growth this year,” the chamber’s chief policy officer, Neil Bradley, said in a statement.

“We encourage the administration to use this opportunity to reset overall tariff policy in a manner that will lead to greater economic growth, larger wage gains for workers, and lower costs for families.”

The Supreme Court did not rule on whether the US must refund revenue raised from Trump’s tariffs package.

Conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh in his dissent argued that the US “may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others”.

“As was acknowledged at oral argument, the refund process is likely to be a mess,” Kavanaugh added.

He also warned that since the tariffs imposed via emergency powers “helped facilitate trade deals worth trillions of dollars — including with foreign nations from China to the United Kingdom to Japan, the Court’s decision could generate uncertainty regarding various trade agreements. That process, too, could be difficult.”

“Today’s decision makes one thing clear: long-term trade policy must come from Congress, not emergency powers,” said Mark Fisk, spokesperson for the Michigan Smart Trade Alliance.
 
“Michigan’s economy is deeply tied to cross-border trade, particularly with Canada. Sudden tariff actions create uncertainty across manufacturing, agriculture, retail and supply chains,” said John Sellek, spokesman for MISTA.

The National Retail Federation said the Supreme Court’s decision provided certainty to businesses whose focus is turning to the possibility of refunds.

“We urge the lower court to ensure a seamless process to refund the tariffs to US importers. The refunds will serve as an economic boost and allow companies to reinvest in their operations, their employees and their customers,” the trade group said.

While Democratic lawmakers were quick to celebrate the ruling, many Republican lawmakers held back on immediately responding to the Supreme Court’s decision. Those who did speak out were split.

Bernie Moreno, the Republican senator from Ohio and a staunch Donald Trump ally, called the ruling “outrageous”, adding that it “handcuffs our fight against unfair trade that has devastated American workers for decades”.

In a social media post, Moreno called on Senate Republicans to push through legislation to codify Trump’s tariff regime.

But Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican and libertarian who has long been critical of Trump’s tariffs, praised the Supreme Court.

Elizabeth Warren, Democratic senator for Massachusetts, said: “No Supreme Court decision can undo the massive damage that the Trump tariffs have done.”

The British Chambers of Commerce said the ruling could, potentially, lead to higher tariffs for countries like the UK and Australia than the 10 per cent additional tariffs they currently face in their “reciprocal” deals with Donald Trump.

William Bain, head of trade policy at the BCC, said the Supreme Court ruling created “murky waters” for business as they waited to hear about refund processes and the impact on the current UK-US trade pact. 

“If he wants to, [Trump] could use the 1974 Trade Act to impose even higher tariffs than the additional10 per cent levies that the UK and Australia have already been affected by in many goods sectors,” Bain added.

The S&P 500 index in the US rose slightly following the news.

The shares of US companies heavily dependent on foreign supply chains were bolstered by the Supreme Court decision.

US apparel groups Nike and Lululemon rose as much as 2 per cent while Under Armour rose nearly 4 per cent.

US toymakers were also higher, with Mattel up 1.4 per cent and Hasbro up 0.5 per cent. Shares of memory chipmakers rose, with Western Digital and SanDisk both up 1.4 per cent.

Also benefiting were US automotive retailers, with Cars.com up 1.6 per cent and Penske Automotive Group up 2.1 per cent.

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The International Chamber of Commerce said it could take a while for businesses to receive refunds for tariffs paid.

ICC secretary-general John Denton also warned that Donald Trump could use other laws to replace them.

“Many businesses will welcome the prospect of refunds following today’s ruling, given the significant strain that the IEEPA tariffs have placed on corporate balance sheets in recent months,” he said, referring to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

He added:

But companies should not expect a simple process: the structure of US import procedures means claims are likely to be administratively complex. Today’s ruling is worrying silent on this issue and clear guidance from the Court of International Trade and the relevant US authorities will be essential to minimise avoidable costs and prevent litigation risks.

The Supreme Court ruling is so devastating to Donald Trump’s trade agenda because the vast majority of the tariffs he imposed during his second term have invoked emergency powers rather than established statutes.

These include all the levies on imports set in the aftermath of his “liberation day” tariff announcement last April on a broad range of trading partners, including the EU and China, to other levies imposed on China, Canada and Mexico over fentanyl imports.

The ruling will not, however, affect tariffs that Trump has imposed or threatened to impose on individual sectors, such as metals, chips and cars.

The EU said it was talking to Washington about how it would respond to the decision.

“We take note of the ruling by the US Supreme Court and are analysing it carefully,” said European Commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill.

The two sides struck a deal last summer under which the EU pays 15 per cent tariffs on most goods, but it has yet to implement its agreed tariff reductions for US products.

We remain in close contact with the US Administration as we seek clarity on the steps they intend to take in response to this ruling.

Businesses on both sides of the Atlantic depend on stability and predictability in the trading relationship. We therefore continue to advocate for low tariffs and to work towards reducing them.

European carmakers that export to the US were boosted by news of the Supreme Court rulings.

Jeep-owner Stellantis’s share price jumped 2.9 per cent, while BMW was up 1.8 per cent. Porsche climbed 2.6 per cent and Volkswagen rose 1.3 per cent.

The region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 index jumped on the court’s decision, trading 0.9 per cent higher. The Dax index in Germany climbed 0.7 per cent.