Trump's tariffs are 'not going away' amid legal battles, White House says
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump's tariffs are "not going away," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said, downplaying a pair of recent court decisions that declared the bulk of the president's tariffs illegal and momentarily paused the levies.
Lutnick's June 1 comments on Fox News Sunday came days after the Court of International Trade ruled that Trump lacked the authority under the emergency power he cited on April 2 to impose reciprocal tariffs on imports from most countries. An appeals court later said Trump can continue to levy the tariffs while challenging the ruling.
Lutnick predicted Trump would win on appeal. But he also referenced other tariff authorities if the higher courts agree with the trade court that Trump can't invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to bypass Congress to issue the tariffs.
"Rest assured, tariffs are not going away," Lutnick said. "He has so many other authorities that even in the weird and unusual circumstance where this was taken away, we just bring on another or another or another."
In addition to the trade court's ruling, a federal district judge in Washington, D.C. blocked the Trump administration from collecting tariffs from a pair of Illinois toy importers, also ruling that the same 1977 law didn’t grant Trump the powers to impose tariffs as he claimed.
Trump addressed the legal battles in a Sunday post on Truth Social: "If the Courts somehow rule against us on Tariffs, which is not expected, that would allow other Countries to hold our Nation hostage with their anti-American Tariffs that they would use against us. This would mean the Economic ruination of the United States of America!"
Amid the tariff whiplash from the court rulings, Trump announced on May 30 that he's doubling his tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from a 25% rate to 50%.
"I think it cost us a week ‒ maybe cost us a week," Lutnick said of the court decisions, arguing that other countries still want to make trade deals with the United States. "Everybody came right back to the table. Everybody is talking to us. You're going to see over the next couple of weeks really first-class deals for the American worker."
For two months, Trump and White House officials have boasted about their prospects of using tariffs to secure trade agreements with other nations. So far, the administration has only secured a deal with the United Kingdom, in addition to a pact with China to slash massive tariffs on each other for 90 days. Trump later accused China of violating the tariff agreement on May 30,
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that he expects Trump to soon talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping, expressing confidence trade issues will be "ironed out," including over critical minerals he said Beijing is refusing to open to trade.
"They are withholding some of the products that they agreed to release during our agreement," Bessent said. "Maybe it's a glitch in the Chinese system. Maybe it's intentional. We'll see after the president speaks with the party chairman."
The Chinese government said Xi has not spoken to Trump since his Jan. 20 inauguration.
"I believe we'll see something very soon," Bessent said when asked whether a meeting is scheduled for Trump to talk to Xi.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.