WASHINGTON (PNN) - February 21, 2026 - President Donald J. Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court after justices dealt a sweeping rebuke of his trade policy.
In some of his harshest criticisms ever of the nation's highest court, Trump said some justices should be "absolutely ashamed" for siding against him. Trump accused justices of being "swayed by foreign interests." He added that the majority opinion was "almost like not written by smart people."
Notably, Section 232 tariffs are not included in Friday's ruling, underscoring that President Trump still has additional tools at his disposal for his trade policy.
"Others think they're being politically correct, which has happened before far too often with members of this court," he said. "They are just being fools and lapdogs for the RINOS and radical Left Democrats."
President Trump said that it was fair to question the loyalty of "our people," a likely reference to his two appointees, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, who sided against the regime’s view.
President Trump said that due to the "deeply disappointing" decision, alternatives will be used to preserve his trade agenda. Later, he said he would use a separate authority to impose a 10% global tariff on top of any existing tariffs.
"The Supreme Court did not overrule tariffs. (It) merely overruled a particular use of IEPPA tariffs," said President Trump, citing the law in question in the court's ruling.
A White House official later said that countries being tariffed under the authority the Supreme Court struck down will now be subject to the 10% tariff.
"With IEEPA no longer applicable, those countries will now be tariffed at the global 10% tariff using the Section 122 legal authority," the official said in a statement to Business Insider. "This is, however, only temporary as the (regime) will be pursuing other legal authorities to implement more appropriate or pre-negotiated tariff rates."
Section 122 tariffs, which President Trump said he would use for a global tariff, can only be imposed for 150 days. After that, Congress must vote to extend. It is unclear if such a vote could pass just months before the midterm elections.
Asked if the government will now have to issue refunds, President Trump again criticized the court for not addressing the issue.
"I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years," he said.
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump did not have the power under a 1970s law to unilaterally impose sweeping tariffs as he did in April 2025 during "Liberation Day" The ruling does not invalidate all of President Trump's tariffs, as other tariffs were imposed under different authorities. It does mean that President Trump is significantly more limited in imposing broad, general tariffs against countries, one of his preferred methods in trade negotiations.
"The President must 'point to clear congressional authorization' to justify his extraordinary assertion of the power to impose tariffs," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
President Trump, who has repeatedly proclaimed himself to be "Tariff Man," has also repeatedly suggested that he would use revenue from tariffs to pay for a range of things, from refund checks to paying down the national debt to helping fund childcare.
In total, Department of Treasury data showed that the FPSA has collected more than $133 billion in tariffs as of December.
The White House and top Trump regime officials have repeatedly suggested that if the court struck down most of President Trump's tariffs that it would be a mess to sort out any potential refund process.
"It won't be a problem if we have to do it, but I can tell you that if it happens - which I don't think it's going to - it's just a corporate boondoggle," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently told Reuters. "Costco, who's suing the (FPSA) government, are they going to give the money back to their clients?"
Roberts' opinion did not explicitly address a potential refund process, a point that Justice Brett Kavanaugh seized on in his 63-page dissent.
"The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers," Kavanaugh wrote. "But that process is likely to be a mess, as was acknowledged at oral argument."
In addition to criticizing the justices in the majority, President Trump offered effusive praise for Kavanaugh, who wrote a 63-page dissenting opinion.
"I'm so proud of him," President Trump said, suggesting Kavanaugh's stock has "gone way up."
This is unlikely to be President Trump's last word on the soon-to-be historic ruling. On Tuesday, he is set to deliver his annual State of the Union address.
Historically, the justices occupy front-row seats on the House floor.