The Context

Multiple Trump administration officials and congressional Republicans renewed their attacks on the judiciary after the U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled that Trump exceeded his authority when he levied sweeping global tariffs by invoking an emergency-powers law.

The court ruled on the issue after two groups of plaintiffs—businesses and states—sued the Trump administration, accusing the president of violating the United States Constitution by sidestepping Congress to impose the tariffs.

The court’s three-judge panel ruled Wednesday that Trump does not have “unbounded authority” to levy the duties and ordered most of them to be paused. One of the judges is a Trump appointee. The other two were appointed by former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.

Less than 24 hours later, a federal appeals court stayed the lower court’s ruling, reinstating Trump’s tariffs while it awaits arguments from the plaintiffs and defendants.

What To Know

Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing and a key proponent of Trump’s tariffs, disparaged “rogue judges” during an interview on Fox Business Network on Thursday and later repeated his allegations while addressing reporters at the White House.

“This has got to stop, by the way, this weaponization of the judiciary to stop President Trump from doing what he promised,” Navarro said. “This has got to stop. The people of America have the lowest level of confidence in the American judiciary they’ve had in a hundred years and it’s getting close to what they think about Congress. And that’s a low bar to hit.”

The Independent‘s Andrew Feinberg interrupted Navarro, asking him if the administration’s attacks on judges were influencing the public’s view.

“How much of that is just, every time you get a court decision you don’t like, you and your colleagues come out here and rail against rogue judges—” Feinberg began, before Navarro cut him off.

“See, who is this guy?” Navarro said while pointing at Feinberg. “Tell me who you are, sir.”

After Feinberg identified himself, Navarro said: “Ok, so, that is such a biased question. That is not a journalist question.”

“That was like an op-ed, sir, so I won’t even respond to that,” he said, while appearing to shoo Feinberg away.

The White House also excoriated “unelected judges” in its initial statement responding to Wednesday’s ruling from the trade court, telling Newsweek in a statement: “It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency. President Trump pledged to put America First, and the Administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness.”

What People Are Saying

Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, said on Fox News: “We’re very pleased with the ruling. We expected it. The bottom line is that our U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, is the best trade thinker in the business. President Trump’s case is ironclad. The appeals court took almost no time at all, in fact, we’re surprised it took until the end of the [trading] day for them to overturn this previous ruling.”

The Liberty Justice Center, which is representing several companies that sued to block the tariffs, said in a statement Thursday: The appeals court’s ruling is “merely a procedural step as the court considers the government’s request for a longer stay pending appeal.”

The statement continued: “We are confident the Federal Circuit will ultimately deny the government’s motion shortly thereafter, recognizing the irreparable harm these tariffs inflict on our clients.”

What Happens Next

Trump’s global tariffs have been reinstated—for now—while the appeals court waits for both the plaintiffs and defendants to submit written arguments on blocking Trump’s tariffs. The arguments must be filed by early June.