Trump's backup options for tariffs
The Indicator from Planet Money
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The U.S. Supreme Court may soon rule on President Trump’s favorite tariff law. It could render them moot, but that doesn’t mean the end of tariffs. On today’s show, we explain the president’s back-up options for imposing tariffs.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | NPR. |
| 0:02.1 | This is the indicator from Planet Money. |
| 0:13.9 | I'm Stephen. |
| 0:15.2 | And I'm Whalen Wong. |
| 0:16.4 | You know, Stephen, the Supreme Court math is not looking so good for President Donald |
| 0:20.1 | Trump's favorite |
| 0:21.0 | tariff law. |
| 0:22.1 | No, not based on my back of the napkin numbers. |
| 0:24.6 | And, you know, the law behind President Trump's reciprocal tariffs went before the Supreme |
| 0:29.1 | Court last week. |
| 0:30.8 | And three of the court's conservative justices had pointed questions for the government. |
| 0:35.7 | If just two of them joined the liberal justices against the government, well, that's the end of Trump's favorite tariffs. |
| 0:42.3 | Or is it? |
| 0:43.5 | At the hearing last week, even the lawyer arguing against the Trump administration, Neil Katiel, said there are other options it could use. |
| 0:51.3 | I do think if you ruled, as we're suggesting you do, against the government, they can go |
| 0:56.4 | and try and seek to use other authorities, whether it's 338, Section 122, et cetera. |
| 1:03.1 | Et cetera. |
| 1:05.0 | On today's show, we dig into et cetera. |
| 1:08.2 | Some of the other tariff options the Trump administration still has, no matter |
| 1:12.3 | how the Supreme Court decides this case. |
| 1:17.6 | So if there's so many tariff laws, why did Trump go with this one that's before the court? |
| 1:22.5 | The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, also known as AIPA. |
... |
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