The White House on Thursday lashed out at federal judges who have blocked President Donald Trump to be able to impose global tariffs, a key part of his second -period agenda.
Trump, who has a long story of chasing the judges whose rulings he does not agree, until Thursday afternoon he had not yet weighed in two courts that they consider some of his tariffs as “illegal.”
However, the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, opened her information with a long attack against legal setbacks. She called him “judicial overreach” and asked the highest court in the Nation to intervene.
“These judges threaten to undermine the credibility of the United States on the world stage,” Leavitt said. “The administration has already presented an emergency motion for a stay pending an appeal and an immediate administrative stay to demolish this atrocious decision. But, ultimately, the Supreme Court must end this for the sake of our Constitution and our country.”
The International Trade Court eliminated Trump’s global tariffs on Wednesday as “contrary to the law.” A Federal Court of Appeals is temporarily delaying the ruling, while the Administration challenges the ruling, restoring the policy for now.
The three judges panel had found the International Law on Emergency Economic Powers, in which Trump relied to promulgate his tariffs, does not give him the “unlimited” power to impose the taxes he has in recent months. They told him that the authority for most tariffs falls to Congress, and Trump’s tariffs do not constitute “unusual and extraordinary threat” that would allow him to act unilaterally.
Leavitt criticized the panel as “activist judges” even though its three members were appointed for the bank by three different presidents: Trump, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan.
“The president’s justification for imposing these powerful rates was legally solid and based on common sense,” he said. “President Trump correctly believes that the United States cannot function safely in the long term if we cannot climb the advanced national manufacturing capacity, have our own safe and critical supply chains, and our industrial defense base depends on foreign adversaries.”
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, speaks during an informative session at the White House, on May 29, 2025, in Washington.
Jim Watson/AFP through Getty Images
“Three judges of the United States International Court of the United States did not agree and blatantly abused their judiciary to usurp the authority of President Trump, to prevent the mandate that the American people gave him,” he added.
Leavitt also promoted the Senate controlled by the Republicans who declined a bipartisan measure presented to block Trump’s rates. That measure failed the thinnest margins in a vote of 49-49.
“After the day of liberation, Congress firmly rejected an effort directed by Senator Rand Paul and the Democrats to finish the reciprocal tariffs of the president. The courts should not have any role here,” he argued.
When Trump announced his long -awaited tariffs on “Liberation Day” against almost all US business partners in early April, he considered that chronic commercial deficits are a national emergency that “threatens our security and our same way of life.”
Since then, it has often changed or delayed the originally established tariff rates, which often results in a market agitation. A 90 -day pause in the highest “reciprocal” taxes, the so -called “reciprocal” instituted so that Trump can work in commercial agreements will expire in early July.
ABC News senior political correspondent, Rachel Scott, asked the White House if she actively reviewed other methods to implement Trump’s tariff agenda in the light of judicial orders.
“The president’s commercial policy will continue. We will comply with judicial orders. But yes, the president has other legal authorities where he can implement tariffs,” Leavitt said.
“We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Leavitt said.
Kelsey Walsh and Peter Charalambous of ABC News contributed to this report.
