Trump Cabinet gets Instant Repudiation in Tariff Ruling

0:00So it actually gets much worse than the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Friday that Donald Trump's so-called reciprocal tariffs against the world were unlawful and thusly unlawful. You see, on Friday morning, Donald Trump had his cabinet submit letters to that Federal Circuit Court of Appeals saying that it would utterly humiliate Donald Trump and the administration and harm the United States standing in the world if the court ultimately ruled against the Trump regime. And then a few hours later, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals made that ruling that Donald Trump's invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, IEPA, to try to institute these tariffs was patently unlawful and illegal.

0:51So the cause and effect right there was the Trump regime begging, please, you're going to make us look so embarrassed. And then the court right away said, enough is enough. We're issuing our order right before Labor Day. Now, I can say for certain that the court didn't already have a plan that they were going to make the ruling on Friday, but they seem to have expedited their ruling based on the begging by the Trump regime. So earlier in the day, there was this story out of Bloomberg, but it just talked about the filing by the Trump regime, how Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary, Scott Besant, and others warned of massive embarrassment to the United States if the tariffs were ruled illegal.

1:35Hours later, the tariffs were ruled illegal. And its other cabinet officials got involved as well. Trump cabinet officials told a federal appeals court that ruling President Trump's global tariffs illegal would seriously harm U.S. foreign policy, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett warning of dangerous diplomatic embarrassment. embarrassment. The administration on Friday filed statements by Besant, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington. They oversee the Court of International Trade, which previously ruled against the Trump regime, but stayed or paused their order pending a ruling by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, and they in turn stayed their order pending a ruling by the United States Supreme Court.

2:26And it says that the court was expected to decide later today about what Donald Trump's powers were. Besant, Lutnik, and Rubio's statements were filed in support of a request that any ruling against the administration be immediately put on hold until the Supreme Court issues a final decision. Failing to do so would have devastating and dire consequences, Lutnik said. During July 31st oral arguments before the federal circuit, the administration claims of broad tariff power were met with skepticism, suggesting that the judges might side with separate challenges filed by groups of small businesses and a coalition of Democratic-led states.

3:08Friday's filing seems to suggest the administration was worried about the outcome that occurred. The cabinet secretary said that a ruling invalidating tariffs would undo months of negotiations with the European Union, Japan, South Korea, and other nations. Besson said the president's ability to quickly impose tariffs had prevented other nations from responding in kind. Suspending the effectiveness of the tariff would expose the United States to the risk of retaliation by other countries based on a perception that the United States lacks the capacity to respond rapidly to retaliation, the Treasury Secretary said.

3:49let me tell you what's really going on here as we dig deeper. Donald Trump has done zero trade deals so far. And you may go, but Ben, what are you talking about? Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom, European Union, to which I say as a lawyer, but setting aside my legal degree, as someone who should be exercising common sense, all right, if there was a deal, show me the paperwork. Where's the deal? I'd like to read it. We live in a country where these deals are supposed to be posted, all prior trade deals are posted, show it to me. I'd like to see where Japan has agreed that they will give the United States$550 billion as a signing bonus, as Donald Trump says, and then the United States gets to keep 90 % of the profits from that$550 billion that's invested, and Japan only gets 10 % when Japan's entire GDP is$4 billion.

4:43I'd really like to see that document. Oh, wait, we don't get to see that document. Oh, wait, you mean to tell me Japan canceled their trip to the United States this past week? Their trade negotiator, Akazawa, said, I'm not going to be in the United States because we don't like the Trump regime misrepresenting the terms of the deal. Oh, I get it. Show me where it says the European Union is going to give Donald Trump$750 billion to invest. Just going to give it to him. Show me where it says South Korea is going to just give Donald Trump that money. Just show me the deal. I saw when Donald Trump was with the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and Trump thought Starmer was the president of the European Union, and then Trump dropped the so-called trade deal on the floor at the G7.

5:28It was all blank pages, except for Donald Trump's signature on one of the blank pages, because they were just trying to do a complete fraud on the people. I don't see any deals. There are no trade deals that exist. It's oral arrangements that are made up in Donald Trump's mind. And all the foreign countries were waiting for this ruling to happen because they knew that what Donald Trump was doing was unlawful. So they're like, OK, Donald, you can say some fake deal terms that aren't actually going to be dispositive or binding. These are all non-binding oral arrangements, which is absolutely ridiculous.

6:02What else is going on here is Trump's cabinet members know what a disaster these tariffs are. They know that Donald Trump has placed multiple poison pills in our economy, and our economy right now is not doing well. Growth has slowed. We're in a stagflationary period, meaning inflation's rising while GDP's decreasing and unemployment's on the rise as well. That is not good. That's stagflation. So they want a scapegoat. They want to blame the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. They were setting up the court. The court knew they were being set up. That's one of the reasons why the court, I think, ruled as quickly and as strongly as it did.

6:45The same way Trump wants to blame Dr. Fauci, the same way Trump blamed Dr. Fauci for COVID, the same way Trump's blaming the president, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, you know, too late Powell, he says, it's Trump. Okay. This is what he does. He scapegoats, but I'd like to see the American who goes, you know what? I'm super pissed at the federal circuit court of appeals. They're the reason why the economy is doing bad. No, it's because Trump it's because this disastrous trade war against the world is on Trump the same way that the blood is on Donald Trump's hand across the world right now for all the wars that he claimed he was going to stop, but he did it in Gaza, in Ukraine.

7:26Going through this article again, it talks about how Trump's tariffs were ruled illegal first by the Court of International Trade in May, which found that Donald Trump didn't have the authority. It was put on hold by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeal right there. Lutnik, in his filing with the court on Friday, said tariffs had brought foreign powers to the negotiating table in ways that no other president came close to achieving and told the court that an adverse ruling would send a signal to the world that the United States lacks the resolve to defend its own economic and national security.

8:03You see what they're doing? They're extorting the court. They're threatening the court and the court didn't listen to it, but they're saying, we're going to blame everything on you. All of the bad stuff that's happening right now when Donald Trump's like, we're in a golden age. Inflation is gone. We know that's all BS. Things are getting really, really bad. The American people are feeling how bad it is, but they're setting the court up is what they're doing. Rubio said that Trump used his IEPA power, that's the Emergency Act power, in connection with highly sensitive negotiations to end Russia's war in Ukraine and claim there could be severe consequences for ongoing peace negotiations and human rights abuses if the court ruled against the administration.

8:46Again, do you see what they're doing right there? So now why couldn't Donald Trump stop the war in Ukraine? The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, why is the economy going in the wrong direction? Chairman Powell, Lisa Cook, one of the random governors, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, they're responsible for it. They're blaming all of Trump's failures on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. and then immediately the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals makes its ruling. And again, what was that ruling? It was a strong ruling saying Donald Trump doesn't have power under the IEPA. So here's what they said, just so we could all be very clear on it.

9:25The government appeals a decision of the Court of International Trade setting aside these executive orders and impose tariffs of unlimited duration on nearly all goods from nearly every country in the world, holding that tariffs were not authorized by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, IEPA, International Emergency Economic Powers Act, because we agree that IEPA's grant of presidential authority to regulate imports does not authorize the tariffs imposed by the executive orders, we affirm. And what the Court of Appeals does, they go over the Constitution. They say the The Constitution grants Congress the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, and to regulate commerce with foreign nations.

10:14Tariffs are a tax. And the framers of the Constitution expressly contemplated the exclusive grant of the taxing power to the legislative branch. when Patrick Henry expressed concern that the president may easily become king. James Madison replied that this would not occur because the purse is in the hand of the representatives of the people. But you see how the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals makes it very clear there, because the Trump regime claims that tariffs are paid by the foreign countries, which they're not. There are tax on us. We pay the tariffs. Tariffs are a tax. And the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals emphasizes that there a lot.

10:53And it goes on to say that if you look at IEPA, I-E-E-P-A, it authorizes the president in certain emergency situations to do a lot of things, but it doesn't use the word tariff. And what the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals says, if Congress wanted to give away its power under Article 1 of tariffing, of collecting taxes to the presidency, to the executive branch in our separation of power systems, they would have said in the law, in IEPA, that Trump has tariff power. We hereby delegate our power. It still may be unconstitutional, but they would have said it in the legislation and they didn't say it in the legislation.

11:36And it goes on to say the following on page 36 and 37. As already discussed, tariffs are a core congressional power. The basic and consequential trade-offs that are inherent in the president's decision to impose these reciprocal tariffs are ones that Congress would likely have intended for itself. Moreover, the United States imports more than$4 trillion of goods annually. These imports account for 14 % of the nation's economy. The government itself has claimed that reciprocal tariffs will generate$2.3 trillion and$3.3 trillion over the budget window. The executive use of tariffs qualifies as a decision of vast economic and political significance.

12:18So the government must point to a clear congressional authorization. And there's no clear congressional authorization. So you can send us all the letters you want, Besant, Rubio, Lutnik, and try to throw this on us, but we're not going to be intimidated by you. That's what they were saying. That's the message that was being sent. Powerful message, even more than just Donald Trump, your tariffs are unlawful.

13:08Got you.