Trump’s Epic Loss on Tariffs Is Even Worse for Him than You Think

The Supreme Court’s stunning invalidation of most of the president’s tariffs is another sign that Trumpist populist nationalism is in crisis.

The Supreme Court’s stunning decision invalidating Donald Trump’s tariffs isn’t just a major legal setback, though it certainly is that. The loss before the high court is also another sign that the pillars of Trump’s right-wing nationalist agenda are crumbling in a much broader and deeper sense—so much so that it’s posing a serious threat to the long-term durability of the ideology known as Trumpism.

If you had to name the two most essential pillars of Trumpian populist nationalism, you’d probably single out his sweeping tariffs and his campaign to deport all undocumented immigrants. The tariffs are supposed to unleash a domestic manufacturing renaissance, and the mass expulsions are designed to ethnically and culturally purify the nation. Together they make up much of the foundation of Trumpism’s fantasy version of nationalist renewal.

Both of those are now in crisis. The tariffs have been broadly invalidated. And in the aftermath of ICE’s invasion of Minneapolis, the deportations of noncriminal undocumented immigrants—while still proceeding—have been widely discredited in the minds of all but the molten MAGA core and face determined resistance all across American culture and society.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision is sweeping. Trump claimed extraordinarily broad tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), citing its grant of authority to “regulate…importation.” But as the majority notes, that simply does not constitute an authority to........

© New Republic