President Donald Trump said on Saturday he will raise temporary tariffs on almost all United States imports from 10% to 15%, the maximum level allowed under the law, after the US Supreme Court struck down his previous tariff program as invalid.
Trump had immediately announced a 10% across-the-board tariff on Friday after the court’s decision, which found the president had exceeded his authority when he imposed an array of higher rates under an economic emergency law.
The new levies are grounded in a separate law, known as Section 122, that allows tariffs up to 15% but requires congressional approval to extend them after 150 days.
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said he would use that period to work on issuing other “legally permissible” tariffs. The administration intends to rely on two other statutes that permit import taxes on specific products or countries based on investigations into national security or unfair trade practices.
“I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% worldwide tariff on countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the US off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.
The new duty by law is only temporary — allowable for 150 days. According to a White House fact sheet, exemptions remain for sectors that are under separate probes, including pharma, and goods entering the US under the US-Mexico-Canada agreement.
Read: Trump imposes 10% global tariffs for 150 days after Supreme Court blocks earlier duties
Trump spent much of the past year imposing various rates to cajole and punish countries, both friend and foe.
On Friday, the White House said US trading partners that reached separate tariff deals with Trump’s administration would also face the new global tariff.
The conservative-majority high court ruled six to three on Friday that a 1977 law Trump has relied on to slap sudden rates on individual countries, upending global trade, “does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”
The ruling does not impact sector-specific duties Trump separately imposed on imports of steel, aluminum and various other goods. Several government probes which could lead to more sectoral tariffs remain in the works.
Still, this marks Trump’s biggest defeat at the Supreme Court since returning to the White House last year.
While Trump has long relied on tariffs as a lever for diplomatic pressure and negotiations, he made unprecedented use of emergency economic powers in his second term to slap new duties on virtually all US trading partners.
These included “reciprocal” tariffs over trade practices that Washington deemed unfair, alongside separate sets of duties targeting major partners Mexico, Canada and China over illicit drug flows and immigration.
The court noted Friday that “had Congress intended to convey the distinct and extraordinary power to impose tariffs” with IEEPA, “it would have done so expressly, as it consistently has in other tariff statutes.”
Also Read: US trade partners cautiously welcome Supreme Court tariff ruling
The Supreme Court’s three liberal justices joined three conservatives in Friday’s ruling, which upheld lower court decisions that tariffs Trump imposed under IEEPA were illegal.
Conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
Trump, who had nominated two of the justices who repudiated him, responded furiously, alleging without evidence that the court was influenced by foreign interests.
“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” Trump told reporters.
“The Supreme Court’s decision today made a president’s ability to both regulate trade and impose tariffs more powerful and more crystal clear, rather than less,” he said.
