The country’s current president has now been called the “TACO” president, the acronym first coined by the Financial Times in describing Trump [as] Always Chickening Out [in enforcing tariffs]. Less we all know, certainly those of us in business in these parts or elsewhere across the country, that his declaring tariffs, then reducing, delaying or withdrawing them, does nothing for our prosperity or well-being. Just look at the big box stores in our community as but in microcosm for this reality. And our investments in the stock market have equally suffered because of these tariffs.
But, now, what I have just penned may all be moot. On May 29, the federal trade court panel of three federal jurists (called the Court of International Trade and part of the federal judicial system), ruled unanimously—with one of the judges being a Trump appointee—that Trump did not have the authority to impose his sweeping tariffs on basically all nations, even that island in the southern hemisphere with only penguins and icebergs as residents (yes, that is true). The ruling, which the Trump team has now vowed to immediately appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that sits in New York, found Trump acted unconstitutionally in imposing tariffs under a federal law called the International Emergency Economic Act of 1977 (IEEPA). The opinion is online and is worth a gander.
And as if a footnote to this ruling which strikes at the core of Trump’s love affair with tariffs’ wreaking havoc on our economy and the prices we consumers pay for goods, is another scathing opinion by a federal court, finding that Trump’s EO (Executive Order) on a law firm was equally unconstitutional. In fact, of the three law firms that have challenged Trump on this score with court rulings, all have come away with unblemished victories against him.
So while the financial press and media pundits have called Trump the “TACO” president, perhaps more fitting in light of these (above) court cases (and certainly others in which Trump has lost) is for him to be tarred with the the moniker, the LOSER president.
Miles Zaremski is a resident of the Village of Dunedin.