An expert explains why Donald Trump is playing with tariffs again. “It was an affront to him”

The US president imposes global tariffs. “For Trump it was an affront”

— Donald Trump demonstrates his agency on the American political scene, says Dr. Marcin Fatalski, an Americanist from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. — Trump announced during the election campaign that he wanted to get the US economy back on its feet. He believes that the trade balance between the United States and the rest of the world is unfavorable for his country. He believes, among other things, that Europe sends a lot of its cars to the United States and buys few American ones. Likewise Japan. Hence, he introduces tariffs as an element of pressure on the leaders of other countries. In many cases (for America), the element was successful, because the European Union sat down with the USA to talk about a new trade agreement.

As the expert points out, the problem is that on Friday, January 20, the US Supreme Court found that the president does not have the right to impose tariffs without the consent of Congress. For Trump, it was an affront. First of all, the Court's decision hits the pillar of its policy. The president also took it personally because the decision was made, among others, by the votes of the judges appointed by him. That's why, on the same day, the president did something along the lines of “I can do anything, here's the proof.”

– So there is a clash between important bodies of the judiciary and executive power in the USA – says Dr. Fatalski. — And this is really interesting, because currently in the US Supreme Court Trump has most of the people he could consider “his own.” There are more conservatives there today, associated with Republicans, and this is the party that Donald Trump belongs to.

The expert indicates that Friday's decision of the US Supreme Court is, to some extent, a “stop” to Trump's policy by his own circle. However, the Court's decision is closer to traditional American conservatism, not the MAGA philosophy.

— Conservatives in the US believe that the country's president cannot have too much power. They argue that he must share it with Congress, the Senate and, of course, state governments. Trump on the other hand [choć jest z Partii Republikańskiej] he wants to have as much power as possible in his own hands as head of the executive branch. The Supreme Court is opposing it for now, but the US president is not a man who gives up easily. This is certainly not the end of the epic related to tariffs and the president's powers, concludes Dr. Fatalski.