Donald Trump experienced a rare moment in his second term as president Friday: a loss from the nation’s highest court. The US supreme court declared many of Donald Trump’s tariffs illegal in a sharp rebuke that topples a key pillar of the president’s aggressive economic agenda. In a 6-3 ruling, the court decided that a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies did not provide the legal justification for most of the Trump administration’s tariffs on countries across the world. Trump was not happy and, shocking probably no one, lashed out at the justices who ruled against him – including two he appointed in his first term. He also said that the ruling had emboldened him to enact “very powerful alternatives” to the tariffs declared illegal.

Source: The Guardian February 21, 2026 16:01 UTC