Instant Reaction: Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN Trump’s Tariffs
The Chuck ToddCast
iHeartPodcasts
4.0 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
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Summary
In this breaking-news episode recorded immediately after the Supreme Court's landmark 6-3 ruling striking down Trump's sweeping tariffs under IEEPA, Chuck Todd breaks down what he calls one of the most consequential decisions of the Trump era — and argues the Court did elected Republicans an enormous favor. Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Gorsuch, Barrett, and the three liberal justices, ruled that the 1977 emergency powers law "does not authorize the President to impose tariffs," leaving only Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh in dissent — a split Chuck argues should have been 9-0 given that the Constitution plainly gives Congress the power of the purse. He contends that the 6-3 margin is critical because it prevents Trump from framing the decision as a partisan attack, and gives congressional Republicans cover to move on from a policy that has devastated America's farm economy, spooked markets with uncertainty, and could now require the Treasury to refund an estimated $175 billion to importers. With Trump calling the ruling "a disgrace" and his State of the Union address just days away, Chuck notes the president has a lot of explaining to do — particularly since he could have sought tariff authority from Congress in the spring of 2025 when he had the political capital, but instead chose to go it alone through executive action. Trump, Chuck concludes, is a huge loser here, and the uncertainty is far from over.
Timeline:
00:00 Chuck Todd’s intro - Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s tariffs
00:45 SCOTUS did elected Republicans a favor
02:00 Trump doesn’t have the votes in congress to enact tariffs
03:00 There’s a ton of uncertainty coming from this ruling
04:45 Trump has a lot of explain to do at State of the Union
06:00 Alito & Thomas always side with Trump, Kavanaugh mostly
06:45 Congress has power of purse, ruling should have been 9-0
09:00 Supreme Court has given Republicans cover
10:15 Tariffs have been devastating to America’s farm economy
11:45 Markets face a ton of uncertainty
12:30 6-3 ruling means it won’t be viewed as a partisan decision
13:00 Trump is a huge loser here
14:30 Trump could have gotten tariff authority from congress in Spring ‘25
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:07.4 | Well, huge news for consumers, and I think that's the important win. |
| 0:12.8 | This is a huge win for consumers and a huge win for constitutional. |
| 0:17.0 | It's the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision ruled the president's emergency authority that he has claimed to have to impose tariffs across the board. |
| 0:27.2 | If you go back to Liberation Day and how he's used tariffs as a coercion tool on trade deals, all of that is unconstitutional. |
| 0:35.5 | And so now we go into a world of uncertainty. Politically, this should be |
| 0:42.5 | great news for congressional Republicans. So hear me out. Many of these Republicans don't like |
| 0:47.5 | these tariffs, but they have not wanted to cross the president. I would say that if you had a |
| 0:53.1 | secret vote of congressional Republicans |
| 0:57.7 | on Capitol Hill, you probably would have a sort of a 50-50 split among House Republicans |
| 1:03.8 | and probably two-thirds of Senate Republicans not in favor of the president's use of tariffs and his policies toward here. |
| 1:12.6 | But obviously, if it's not a secret ballot, many of people want to get caught siding with the |
| 1:16.8 | president. But we've seen these little, we've seen the tariffs have created a small wedge. |
| 1:24.0 | And when there's been an opportunity, some Republicans have publicly shown their |
| 1:30.3 | cards and have pushed back on the president. We saw that symbolic vote on Canadian |
| 1:33.8 | tariffs in the House a couple weeks ago, which saw six House Republicans go on the record. |
| 1:39.1 | So why is that six number of Republicans who symbolically voted to get rid of Canadian tariffs important? |
| 1:47.0 | Because in theory, the simplest way for the president to essentially get this authority back and restore his ability to impose these tariffs is to go get permission from Congress. |
| 1:58.1 | Go get specific authority to do what he wants to do. The problem is, |
| 2:02.9 | even though there are Republican majorities in the House and the Senate, there are not majorities |
| 2:06.6 | in the House and the Senate that are in favor of this unilateral authority. There are plenty of |
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