LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It took President Trump almost no time to resume his signature economic policy - raising and lowering tariffs on an almost daily basis.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Supreme Court struck down Trump's tariffs on Friday, saying he violated the Constitution and the law that he cited. Trump immediately claimed the authority of a different law to impose a global tariff of 10% and one day later, he said let's make that 15. In a few moments, we will talk to the lawyer who won the case before the Supreme Court and ask him about the new tariffs. First, let's get the latest information.
FADEL: NPR senior political correspondent Mara Liasson is covering the political cost. Good morning, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: OK. So there are already questions about whether this new move by the president is legal. Can the president raise tariffs on his own?
LIASSON: He says he can. He says he's now going to put, as you said, global tariffs of 15% under a different section of the Trade Act. But these new sections are much more cumbersome than the sweeping powers he had claimed that the Supreme Court struck down. For instance, some of these new tariffs will only last 150 days before Congress has to weigh in. Other ones could be permanent, but they require months of investigations.
And if he's going to China in April to meet Xi Jinping, he just lost a big piece of his leverage because he won't be able to issue tariffs by proclamation for any reason he wants whatsoever.
FADEL: OK. So that's the international impact that you mentioned there. Let's go domestic now. How much does it matter that we're in a midterms year?
LIASSON: It matters a lot. The politics are very complicated. At first glance, the ruling was seen as a godsend for Republicans. They were not going to have to defend Trump's unpopular tariffs, maybe prices would go down. But that optimism among Republicans lasted about five minutes because Trump immediately said that not only was he going to put more tariffs on under a different authority, but that means he has to ask Congress to vote on the tariffs.
And Republicans on Capitol Hill will have to show their loyalty to Trump by voting to impose the tariffs, taking even more ownership of an unpopular policy that a majority of voters believe have driven their costs up. Now, Trump might back off. He might not have the votes. We just saw six House Republicans vote with Democrats against the tariffs on Canada.
FADEL: How are Democrats responding?
LIASSON: Well, several Democratic governors, including Illinois' JB Pritzker and California's Gavin Newsom, demanded that the White House pay back tariff revenues to their states. The administration pushed back on that, saying that has to work its way through the courts. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked about the impact of tariffs on "Fox News Sunday" yesterday. Here's what he said.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY")
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: The trade deficit has not been meaningfully closed. That's number one. Point number two is that we know farmers and small business owners, companies as well as, perhaps most importantly, the American consumer, have been hurt, being forced to pay thousands of dollars more per year and additional expense when the affordability crisis right now is already crushing everyday Americans - middle-class Americans and working-class Americans.
And we also haven't seen a return of manufacturing jobs to the United States of America, which is what the Trump administration promised would take place.
LIASSON: So the short translation, Trump made you pay more and it wasn't even legal. That's likely to be the Democrats' message going into the midterms.
FADEL: Right. Before I let you go, Mara, the State of the Union is on Tuesday. What will you be listening for?
LIASSON: Well, the timing is pretty auspicious. The State of the Unions are any president's biggest opportunities to speak to the public. And the big question for me is how much time Trump will spend in his State of the Union address excoriating the Supreme Court justices who will be sitting right in front of him. Will he repeat his insults, call them lapdogs and fools? Or how much time he will be talking about affordability? That's something he has struggled to do consistently for months.
FADEL: NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Thank you, Mara.
LIASSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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