When the levy brakes: Trump’s tariffs struck down
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The smackdown by America’s Supreme Court was resounding: the bulk of Donald Trump’s tariffs were instituted illegally. He will try to rebuild his tariff wall, brick by brick—creating a new crop of winners and losers. Australia’s surging One Nation party threatens a conservative coalition that was already looking slightly shaky. And why Agatha Christie’s prolific output is so enduringly popular.
Guests and host:
- Rachana Shanbhogue, business-affairs editor
- Aaron Connelly, Asia diplomatic editor
- Jon Fasman, senior culture correspondent
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- America’s Supreme Court, Donald Trump, tariffs
- Australian politics, Pauline Hanson
- Agatha Christie
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:10.3 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:13.6 | I'm your host, Jason Palmer. |
| 0:15.5 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:21.6 | Thank you. provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:31.6 | A surging populist right movement in Australia is now the best polling conservative party in the country, and that is picking away at one of the most persistent coalitions in the Western world. |
| 0:42.5 | And you can't argue that Agatha Christie wasn't prolific, |
| 0:45.6 | but plenty of argued that she wasn't actually all that good. |
| 0:49.9 | Our culture correspondent digs into the secrets of her enduring success. Thank you. But first... |
| 1:02.0 | On first... |
| 1:05.0 | On Friday, the Supreme Court kicked, hard, at one of the legs of Donald Trump's presidency. |
| 1:17.4 | Mr. Trump had invoked a 1970s-era law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or Aipa, |
| 1:24.9 | claiming it allowed him to set tariffs whenever and on whichever country he liked. |
| 1:30.9 | Six of the nine justices, including three conservatives, said, |
| 1:34.9 | Nope, the peacetime power to set taxes lies with Congress. |
| 1:39.4 | Instituting and enforcing those tariffs was messy, to say the least. |
| 1:43.7 | Unwinding them, refunding them will be |
| 1:45.7 | messier still. And Mr. Trump, never one to take a court defeat gracefully, has more taxing tricks |
| 1:52.1 | at the ready, better deals for some, worse deals for others, and headaches for all involved. |
| 1:58.8 | So this is a totemic policy of Donald Trump's that's been struck down, |
| 2:03.3 | and estimates suggest that the ruling would lower America's effective tariff rate by about half. |
| 2:10.9 | Rachana Shanboog is our business affairs editor. |
... |
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