US Supreme Court rules against many of Trump's tariffs
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump has damned a Supreme Court ruling striking down much of his tariffs policy. A clearly furious president vowed to reimpose his import taxes through alternative methods. The court said that the president could not impose tariffs without consulting Congress.
Also in our programme: how rural communities and poorer areas in Russia are being disproportionately affected by the war; and we speak to one of the stars of the first Iranian documentary to earn an Oscar nomination.
(Photo: US President Donald J. Trump, alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaking at a press conference about the Supreme Court's striking down of most of his tariffs. Credit: Yuri Gripas, EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.1 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service, coming to you live from London. |
| 0:13.6 | I'm James Kamara Sami. |
| 0:15.5 | The Trump administration has found itself facing friendly fire today in its trade war with the rest of the world. |
| 0:21.9 | The majority Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court struck down the tariffs that President Trump had imposed under a 50-year-old law meant for national emergencies. |
| 0:31.8 | Six of the nine justices, three of them appointed by Republicans, three of them by Democrats, |
| 0:37.1 | ruled that the International Economic Emergency Powers Act or AIPA did not give the President the authority to impose import taxes during peacetime without consulting Congress. |
| 0:48.9 | The ruling takes a swife at a policy that has been a key and frequently used tool in Donald Trump's economic and foreign policy toolboxes. |
| 0:57.9 | Here's a reminder of how the President unveiled what he called reciprocal tariffs in the White House |
| 1:02.3 | on what he called Liberation Day last April, as he brandished a chart listing them all Sharpie at the ready. |
| 1:09.5 | In a few moments, I will sign a historic executive order |
| 1:12.8 | instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world. |
| 1:18.4 | Reciprocal, that means they do it to us and we do it to them. |
| 1:23.0 | Very simple. It can't get any simpler than that. |
| 1:26.6 | But now things have got a lot more complicated, and when the president began a rare |
| 1:30.9 | impromptu news conference in the White House briefing room in the past few hours, he certainly |
| 1:35.5 | wasn't holding back. The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed |
| 1:48.8 | for not having the courage to do what's right for our country. I'd like to thank and congratulate |
| 1:55.9 | justices Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh for their strength and wisdom and love of our country, |
| 2:03.8 | which is right now very proud of those justices. When you read the dissenting opinions, |
| 2:11.9 | there's no way that anyone can argue against them. There's no way. Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years |
| 2:21.3 | are ecstatic. They're so happy. And they're dancing in the streets, but they won't be dancing |
... |
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