The Following Is An Unedited Transcript of President Donald Trump’s Response To The Supreme Court Decision On Tariffs, Friday, February 20, 2026

Well, thank you very much for being here. The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country. I’d like to thank and congratulate Justices Thomas, Alito, and Cavanaugh. for their strength and wisdom and love of our country. which is right now very proud of those justices.

How The Supreme Courts Decision On Tariffs Prevents Some Tariffs, And Expands Other Tariffs

When you read the dissenting opinions, there’s no way that anyone can argue against them. There’s no way. Foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years are ecstatic.

They’re so happy. And they’re dancing in the streets, but they won’t be dancing for long, that I can assure you. The Democrats on the court are thrilled, but they will automatically vote.

No, they’re an automatic now, just like in Congress. Are an automatic, no? They’re against anything that makes America strong, healthy, and great again.

They also are a, frankly, disgraced to our nation, those justices. They were an automatic, no, no matter how good a case you have, it said no. If you can’t knock their loyalty. one thing, you can do with some of our people.

Others think they’re being politically correct, which has happened before far too often, with certain members of this court, and it’s happened so often with this court, what a shame. having to do with voting, in particular. But in fact, they’re just being fools and lap dogs for the rhinos and the radical left Democrats, and not that they should have anything at all to do with it. The very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution.

It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smarter than people would ever think. It’s a small movement. I won by millions of votes, and we wanted a landslide.

With all the cheating that went on, there was a lot of it. We still wanted a landslide, too big to rig. But these people are obnoxious, ignorant, and loud.

They were very loud, and I think certain justices are afraid of that. They don’t want to do the right thing. They’re afraid of it.

This was an important case to me, more as a symbol of economic national security, and also, I would say, just for our country itself, so important, because we’re doing so well as a country, we’ve never done so well. The good news is that there are methods, practices, statutes, and authorities, as recognized by the entire court in this terrible decision, and also is recognized by Congress, which they refer to, that are even stronger than the Ayepa tariffs available to me as President of the United States, and in actuality, I was very modest in my ask of other countries and businesses, because I wanted… to do, and it’s very important. I wanted to be very well behaved, because I wanted to do anything, I didn’t want to do anything that would affect the decision of the court.

Because I understand the court. I understand how they’re very easily swayed. I want to be a good boy.

I have very effectively utilized tariffs over the past year to make America great again. Our stock market has just recently broken 50,000 for the Dow. And simultaneously, and even more amazingly, broken 70, broken 7,000 on the S&P, two numbers that everybody thought upon our landslide election, victory could not be attained.

Think of that. Nobody knew it was possible to do it within four years, and we did it in one year. They said, You’ll never be able, you go back and you read the geniuses, read their statements.

All of the Nobel Prize winners in economics. They said, No, you couldn’t do it in four years. Well, we didn’t do it in four years.

We did it in one year. We broke every record in the book, and we’re continuing to do so. Tariffs have likewise been used to end five of the eight wars that I settle.

I settled eight wars, whether you like it or not, go to India, Pakistan, big ones. Nuclear could have been nuclear. Prime Minister of Pakistan said yesterday at the great meeting that we had.

The Peace Board. He said yesterday that President Trump could have saved 35 million lives by getting us to stop fighting. They were getting ready to do some bad things.

But they’ve given us great national security, this terrorists have. And together with our strong voters, reduced fentanyl coming into our country by 30%. When I use them as a penalty against countries illegally sending this poison into our country, Poison our you?

All of those Arabs remain. They will remain. I don’t know if you know that or not.

They all remain. We’re still getting them. And we will after the decision.

There’s nobody left to appeal to. But again, those three people, French respect, have had a lot of respect for them anyway, but such great respect. But other alternatives would now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected.

We have alternatives, cradle terms, could be more money. will take in more money. And we’ll be a lot stronger for it. We’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, will continue to do so.

To show you how ridiculous the opinion is, however, the court said that I’m not allowed to charge even one dollar. I can’t judge $1. Can’t judge a dollar.

I would have used one penny, but we don’t make the pennies anymore. We save money. Can’t charge one dollar to any country under Ayipa.

Not one dollar, I assume, to protect other countries. This must have been done to protect those other countries. Certainly not the United States of America, which they should be interested in protecting.

That’s what they’re supposed to be protecting. But I am allowed to cut off any and all trade or business with that same country. In other words, I can destroy the trade.

I can destroy the country. I’m even allowed to impose a foreign country destroying embargo. I can embargo.

I can do anything I want, but I can’t charge one dollar. Because that’s not what it says. And that’s not the way it even reads.

I can do anything I want to do to them, but I can’t judge anybody. So I’m allowed to destroy the country, but I can’t charge them a little fee. I could give a little two cent fee.

But I cannot charge under any circumstances. I cannot judge them anything. Think of it.

How ridiculous is that? I’m allowed to embargo them? I’m allowed to tell me you can’t do business in the United States anymore.

We want you out of here. But if I want to charge him $10, I can’t do that. It’s incorrect.

There are decisions incorrect, but it doesn’t matter, because we have very powerful alternatives that have been approved by this decision. You know, they’ve been approved by their decision. For those that thought they had us.

And they’re saying that I have the absolute right to license, but not the right to charge a license fee. So think of that. I have the right to license, a very powerful word, in many ways, licenses more powerful than tariffs.

In fact, I was thinking about you to see it. But they came up with the idea that I can license, just like the people that were opposing me, told them to do, but not the right to charge a license fee. Think of that.

Whoever heard of such a thing, what license has ever been issued without the right to judge a fee? You get a license, you judge a B. It’s automatic, not with this court. But now the court has given me the unquestioned right to ban all sorts of things from coming into our country, to destroy foreign countries.

But a much more powerful right than many people ever thought we even had, but not the right to charge fee. How crazy is that? Our country is the hottest country anywhere in the world right now.

And it was a dead country, one and a half years ago, under an incompetent president. But now I’m going to go in a different direction, probably the direction that I should have gone the first time, but I read the language. I am very good at reading language, and it read our way 100%, but now I go the way I could have gone originally.

Which is even stronger than our original choice. As Justice Kavanaugh, who stuck his gun. So he’d have to see, I’m so proud of him.

Wrote in his descent. Although I firmly disagree with the court’s holding today, the decision might not substantially constrain a president’s ability to audit tariffs going forward. So, think of that, the decision might not substantially constrain, and it doesn’t.

He’s right. In fact, I can judge much more than I was charging. So I’m gonna just start, although I firmly disagree with the course holding today, the decision might not substantially constrain a president’s ability to order tariffs going forward.

That’s because numerous other federal statutes, which is so true, authorize the President to oppose tariffs, it might justify most, if not all, of the tariffs issued in this case. Even more tariffs actually, those statutes include, think of that, those statutes include, for example, the trade Expansion Act of 1962, Section 232. All of these things I go so well.

The Trade Act of 1974, Sections 122, 201301. And the tariff act of 1930, Section 338 all player, but it’s a little bit longer process. I feel that big things simple.

But they didn’t let us do that. I would like to thank Justice Kavanagh for his, frankly, his genius and his… his great ability. Very proud of.

Got a boyfriend. In actuality, why, while I am sure that they did not mean to do so, the Supreme Court’s decision today made a president’s ability to both regulate trade and oppose tariffs. More powerful and more crystal clear, rather than less.

I don’t think they meant that. I’m sure they didn’t. It’s terrible.

And to think that the Democrats who oppose this only because they want to go the opposite way, They’d like to pack the court, they want to put on 21 people, they want to pack the court, pack the Supreme Court. Maybe they should do it. Maybe they would be better off if they did it.

They want to pack the court. They want to do anything to hurt our country. There will no longer be any doubt, and the income coming in, and the protection of our companies and country. will actually increase because of this decision.

I don’t think the court meant that, but the way it is. Based on longstanding law and hundreds of victories, and even as I was pointed out before, even thousands of victories over the years, to the contrary, the Supreme Court did not overrule tariffs. They merely overruled a particularly use of aipa tariffs.

And essentially, they used to get a fee. I can do anything I want with Aipa, anything. I just can’t charge anybody for it.

I can license. I just can’t judge them. It’s ridiculous, but it’s okay, ’cause we have… other ways, numerous other ways.

The ability to block, embargo, restrict, license, or impose any other condition on a foreign country’s ability to conduct trade with the United States under Ayipa has been fully confirmed by this decision. So now, there’s no doubt, because, you know, there were a lot of questions about Tariffs, ’cause no president was smart enough to use him to protect our country from those countries and businesses that were ripping us off. You took a look at the deficits that we had with some of these countries, it was disgraceful, what they got away with for many, many decades.

But now we know, because this decision affirms all those things that some people weren’t sure about. In order to protect, and it says so. In order to protect our country, a president can actually charge more tariffs than I was charging in the past period of year under the various tariffs authorities, so we can use other of the statutes, other of the tariff authorities, which have also been confirmed and are fully allowed..

Therefore, effective immediately, all national security tariffs under Section 232 in existing Section 301 tariffs. They’re existing. They’re there.

Remain in place, fully in place. and in full force and effect. Today, I will sign in order to impose a 10% global tariff under Section 122. Over and above our normal tariffs already being charged.

And we’re also initiating several Section 301 and other investigations to protect our country from unfair trading practices of other countries and companies. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I say, quite simply, which I said for a long time, make America great again, and interestingly, we’ve already made it great, so I don’t have to use that, but I don’t think we’ll ever give up when Mag is always gonna be with us. If you have a few questions, you can let us hear.

But just to end, so we’re going forward, we will be able to take in more money, and they’ll no longer be doubt, ’cause there was always doubt, I know the people that brought the lawsuit, and, you know, sleaze bags, major sleaze bags, but I know them, and they’re a foreign country centric. They were sending things into our country, and the people representing them knew full well, but they were sending things into our country, and they were beneficial to other countries, but very, very bad for us. And I stopped it, and we’ll just keep it going.

So we have more of a, we have a totally firm decision now. And I don’t think the court meant it, because the court doesn’t show great spirit toward our country, in my opinion, about a bad decisions, but there are usually ways around it. This is something we could have done as Justice Kavanagh said we could have done this originally, but we’re doing it now, and the number’s could be far greater than the hundreds of billions we’ve already taken in.

Yeah, please. Thank you, excuse me. Mr. President, I’m very curious…

I didn’t go out in the… Thank you so much, Mr. President. Justice Thomas, Adelio, as you know, the most conservative constitutional justices, do you think that you’ll get to a point two more justices, later this term, with similar ideologies, and what type of vetting process will they grow through to ensure the uphold?

I don’t know, but they’re great justices. That all I could say. And I hope they’re gonna be around a long time.

I hope they’re gonna say healthy, they’re great people, they’re great, and Justice Alito, to enter the group. These are great. These are great men.

Right. with a great love of our country, and a great understanding of the law. Congress to take additional action on tariffs now. I don’t think it’s already been approved.

I mean, I would ask Congress and probably get it. When people look at the real numbers, and you look at hundreds of billions of dollars that have come into our country, yesterday, I was at a steel plant, as you know, went to Great, Great Place, great plant, great, wonderful people. And they were telling me, I said to him, You were there, a lot of the press in this room.

Of course, I don’t think this plane’s big enough to take the press in this room, but a lot of the press right here, we’re in Georgia. And I said to the owner, I made a speech at a factory, they made steel products, and I said, How are you? Nice to meet you.

How’s business? President. I’d love to kiss you.

This is a very powerful man. I don’t want to be kissed by that man. But a very powerful, strong man has been in the steel business for many years.

His father started it. And he said, Sir, I want to kiss you. I said, Why?

Should be because we were down to working one hour a week, and then you came in and opposed tariffs, and all of that foreign junk that they were dropping into our country stopped. And we’re now going to double shifts, seven days a week, and we may be very soon going to 24 hours around the clock almost seven days a week. You said, sir, I want to kiss you so badly.

And I said, No, thank you. But you know what? He just, just to finalize it, he said, Oh, this is a great place to enjoy it.

In Georgia, he said, All up and down the highway. Same exact answer, sir. We’re all going out of business.

We’re gonna go bankrupt. We are all going out of business. And now every one of us is thriving, and we’re hiring people like we haven’t…

He said, like, I’ve never, and he’s been a businessman, I think, 45 years, like we’ve never hired before. That’s because of tariffs. And we’re gonna keep it going the same way, and it’s, you’re gonna start to see the results of a year from now, when all those factories start, that are under construction right now, you see all the construction numbers are so good.

Those construction workers are building factories that are gonna be open, including not only AI, which is big, but car plants coming in from Canada, who ripped us off for 30% of our market. Mexico ripped us off a big portion. Over the years, they’ve taken our market.

They’ve taken our cars, they manufacture them in Japan, Germany, and all over the Pagan are in our cars. They manufacture them in Japan, Germany, and all over the Aegan or in our cars. They manufacture them in Japan, Germany, and all over the Aiken or in our cars.

They manufacture them in Japan and… But if you’re gonna make a car in some other country, you’re gonna pay a 15, 20, 30% tariff. And those things would never happen, we wouldn’t have lost our business. same thing with as an example, Taiwan.

That one came in, they stole our chip business, they made chips, they, 30 years, longer, they made chip, chip, chip, and, uh, they put our company’s intel and be now the largest company. I saved intel. I literally said, uh, they put our company’s intel would be now the largest company I saved intel.

I literally saved it at the beginning of this administration. And now, all those companies in Taiwan are building factories in Arizona, Texas, and various other places, because they don’t want to pay terrorists. They’re all pouring into the United States.

But just like that great patriot said yesterday, Sir, what you’ve done, nobody thought was possible. And, uh, see, Moore, highly respected economists came into my office yesterday. said, You’ve done something, nobody’s ever done. 22 Nobel Prize winners in economics.

Said, We would write now be in a recession, and you would said, No, we’re gonna have a booming country. We’re gonna have a booming country. You were right.

All 22 were wrong. And you were right. This country’s booming, and it’s booming because of the election on November 5th, and it’s booming for another reason is moving because of tariffs.

Yeah, please, go. Says, what was the head of the decision that the Supreme Court? Yeah, please, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. President. What will you say to foreign nations who seek to renegotiate their meals? What do you mean a moment ago when you said that the Supreme Court has been swayed by foreign interests?

Well, I think that foreign interests are represented by people that I believe have undue influence. They have a lot of influence over the Supreme Court, whether it’s through fear or respect or friendships, I don’t know. But I know some of the people that were involved on the other side, and I don’t like them. they’re real slime balls.

And, uh, kind of do what’s right for the country. You gotta do what’s right for the Constitution. That’s why I respect so much justice, Thomas, and Alito, Cavanaugh, because they not only dissented, their dissent is so strong.

When you read their dissent, you know, a lot of times you’ll read the dissent and it’s like, Well, you know, it could go either way. There’s no other way. The good news is, it’s like, just as Kavanagh said, very strongly, he said, you have other ways, you can go.

You don’t have to go that way. You can go the way. There are numerous other ways you can go.

And frankly, this should have been done by presidents many years ago. They allowed our country to be eaten alive. We lost 50% of our car business.

We used to make cars, we made all the cars. And then Mexico came, Canada came, Japan, and Germany, but they’re all coming back now. They’re all coming back at record level.

No, you need… Please, please. I’m not, I’m not talking to you, okay?

I don’t talk, I don’t talk to CNN, expect there’s no evidence. President President yesterday, you made the case that the economy is… Honest, it’s been in a long time.

January jobs for B, expectation, CPI, report, beat expectation, real wages, or the… What would you tell Americans who are worried that this decision will kind of throw the economy that you have projected, going in the right direction, in a very rapid pace, off track? Well, thank you for the question, and I will say this, we really are at a very important point.

I’ve been waiting for this decision so long, they could have made this decision a long time ago. Not complex. They’re wrong on it.

Ridiculous decision. But they should have released us a long time ago. We waited months, and that gave uncertainty.

Now we have certainty. And I think you’re gonna see the country get much stronger because of it. Look, we were ripped off by almost every country in the world.

If you look at the surpluses, almost every country in the world that did business with us, our people were stupid. And I blamed presidents for it because they’re ultimately the leader. We were being ripped off by almost every single country in the world had massive, some massive surpluses.

China had hundreds of billions of dollars in surpluses with the United States. They rebuilt China. They rebuilt the army.

We built China’s army by allowing that to happen. I have a great relationship with President Chi, but he respects our country now. Now, what we’ve done, I charged China, 20% tariff, as a penalty for sending ventanolin.

And that was 20 times more than they could make by selling fentanyl. I said, you know, at some point, you’re gonna say, like, and they have reduced it. You know, fentanyl is down by more than 30% coming into our country.

Part of that is a strong border. We have a strong border now. But thank you, thank you for your call.

Mr. President, the U.S. would be quote financially defenseless. Are we financially defenseless? because we’re doing something in a different way?

We’re doing something in a very powerful way. And we’re using things that some people thought we should have used in the first place. But it’s more complicated.

It’s a little more complicated, the process takes a little more time, but the end result is gonna get us more money. And I think it’s gonna be great. Yeah.

Peter, go ahead. I was in Trump. So, since Liberation Day, there’s about $175 billion in tariff revenue that is now in lima.

Do you have to refund $175 billion? Very fair question. They take months or months to write an opinion.

And they don’t even discuss that point. We’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars, not millions, hundreds of billions of dollars. And so I said, Well, what happens to all the money that we took in?

It wasn’t discussed. Wouldn’t you think they would have put one sentence in there saying that, keep the money or don’t keep the money, right? I guess it has to get litigated for the next 2 years.

So they write this terrible, defective decision, totally defective. It’s almost like not written by smart people, and what they do, they don’t even talk about that. Your question is very basic.

That was the 1st question I asked also to make you feel good. I said, What about all the money that we’ve taken in? Sir, they don’t discuss that.

How crazy is that? What you’re saying is, are you saying that you don’t plan to honor refunds for companies that file for them? I just told you the answer, right?

I told you the answer. Not discussed. We’ll end up being in court for the next five years.

Good, green, green. Thank you, Mr. President.

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Categories: Robert Clifton Robinson