Trump Hikes ‘temporary’ Global Tariff Rate To 15 Percent, Maximizing Authority In Wake Of Supreme Court Blow

President Donald Trump announced on Saturday he’s planning to hike the new global tariff rate to 15 percent, one day after the Supreme Court struck down his signature tariff policy.

“Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after MANY months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court, please let this statement serve to represent that I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries … to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The White House has not officially implemented the newly increased tariffs.

It comes less than 24 hours after he invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose tariffs up to 15 percent to address a “large and serious balance-of-payment deficit,” which can remain in effect for no more than 150 days unless Congress authorizes an extension.

No president had previously invoked Section 122.

By immediately lifting the rate from 10 percent to 15 percent, Trump maxed out the authority available under the statute. Any further increase would require a different legal mechanism or congressional action.

The Supreme Court on Friday dealt Trump a huge blow, handing down a 6-3 opinion rejecting the administration’s initial method of implementing tariffs via the International Emergency Economics Powers Act.

The president asserted again Saturday that the high court had approved his use of the Section 122 power and other options he said he plans to turn to. While the court’s opinions issued Friday mention those possibilities, the court’s majority explicitly said it was not ruling on when it would be legal to deploy them.

Trump teased further action on tariffs, writing in his Saturday post that in the coming months, his administration will “determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs,” but it was not clear how he plans to do so.

In December, U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer told POLITICO the administration has a long list of plans ready in the scenario that the high court struck down his tariffs. “We’ve been thinking about this plan for five years, or longer,” Greer said. “You can be sure that when we came to the president at the beginning of the term, we had a lot of different options,” he added, noting that IEEPA was the “best tool” but maintaining there are other options to implement tariffs.

A White House fact sheet released Friday announcing the initial 10 percent tariff laid out a list of exemptions similar to the tariffs struck down as illegal Friday, including products within sectors such as energy, pharmaceuticals, autos, aerospace and more.

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.