The war within

PRESIDENT Donald Trump's greatest challenge at home has come from the country’s judiciary, not the opposition Democratic Party that remains leaderless and in disarray.

- BY MALEEHA LODHI

The biggest blow to the US president's trade policy was the ruling delivered by a federal court last month that declared illegal many tariffs he had imposed on countries across the world. Although the administration secured a temporary reprieve from an appeals court that paused the ruling, the legal battle is far from over. The appeal process has to play out and the case may even go to the US Supreme Court. Global financial markets welcomed the court order against tariffs but it leaves Trump's trade plan hanging in the balance.

Trump reacted furiously to the court of international trade’s decision calling it “wrong”, “political” and the “harshest financial ruling” ever. His officials went further, accusing judges of “judicial overreach” and an abuse of power to “usurp the authority of the president”. In fact, it was Trump who exceeded his emergency powers to levy global tariffs, according to the trade court. Trump had invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on April 2.

Due to the adverse market reaction to that decision, he went back and forth on tariffs, pausing them, lowering some and then raising others. This spooked investors and sowed confusion among America’s trading partners. Trump switched course when markets tanked and there was a heavy sell-off in US bonds. After the markets, it was the turn of the courts to try to restrain Trump. As the Financial Times wrote in a recent editorial, America’s courts are playing a salutary role by “trying to rein in what Trump regards as his limitless powers as president”.