Trump to raise new worldwide tariff to 15 per cent after Supreme Court loss

Washington: US President Donald Trump says he will raise his new global tariff to 15 per cent, just a day after ordering a 10 per cent worldwide tariff, following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his previous system of “reciprocal” import duties.

Trump announced on social media on Saturday (Washington time) that “based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday”, he would lift the new tariffs to 15 per cent, effective immediately.

The new tariff is due to begin on Tuesday (Washington time), and lasts for 150 days. It replaces the old system under which imports from Australia had a 10 per cent tariff – effectively the lowest of any country.

Trump’s post on Truth Social did not indicate any exemptions for countries with which the US enjoys a trade surplus, such as Australia. He said the 15 per cent rate would apply to countries worldwide, “many of which have been ‘ripping’ the US off for decades, without retribution”.

He added: “During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again – GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for more information. The revised text of the order was not yet available.

There was no immediate response from the Australian government overnight, but it has consistently opposed Trump’s tariffs on Australian goods, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called “not the act of a friend”.

Trump’s latest move comes a day after he raged at the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his previous system of so-called reciprocal tariffs applied at differing rates using presidential emergency powers.

Trump exceeded his authority as president by doing so, the majority ruled in a 6-3 verdict, as “Congress alone” has the power to raise revenue by imposing permanent tariffs.

The new tariffs use a different mechanism – Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 – which allows the president to impose tariffs of up to 15 per cent for 150 days to address urgent balance-of-payments concerns. Commerce Department data showed the US ran a trade deficit of about $US900 billion ($1.27 trillion) last year.

However, the lawyer who successfully argued the case against the tariffs before the Supreme Court, Neal Katyal, called into question the legality of the new tariffs, too. He pointed out the Department of Justice told the court that trade deficits were “conceptually distinct” from balance-of-payments deficits.

“If [Trump] wants sweeping tariffs, he should do the American thing and go to Congress,” Katyal wrote on X after the president announced the 15 per cent hike. “If his tariffs are such a good idea, he should have no problem persuading Congress. That’s what our Constitution requires.”

In any case, the new tariff would have to be extended by Congress after 150 days. Trump has also instructed the Office of the US Trade Representative to begin formal trade practices investigations, with a view to expanding sectoral tariffs on certain products, such as steel and aluminium.

Those were unaffected by the Supreme Court ruling, which only examined the “reciprocal tariffs” imposed via emergency powers.

On Friday, Trump called a snap news conference following the court’s verdict, where he criticised the court’s “terrible” and “deeply disappointing” decision, which he also claimed was “defective” and legally incorrect.

The president was particularly scornful of the two justices he appointed in his first term who ruled against the tariffs, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, whom he accused of disloyalty. Trump continued to rage on Truth Social, his social media platform, later in the day.

“What happened today with [Gorsuch and Barrett], whether people like it or not, never seems to happen with Democrats,” he posted. “They vote against the Republicans, and never against themselves, almost every single time, no matter how good a case we have.”

Trump heaped praise on Brett Kavanaugh, his 2018 appointment to the bench, who dissented from the majority opinion along with conservative justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.

The court’s verdict has also prompted calls for billions of dollars in tariff revenue to be returned to corporate America and small business importers who bore the brunt of the cost. The US Chamber of Commerce is among the business groups calling for “swift refunds”, while California Governor Gavin Newsom demanded the president return every dollar “with interest”.

But Trump said the matter would likely have to be litigated in court, potentially for years, and chided the Supreme Court for not issuing a ruling on refunds.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, asked in an interview about the fight for $US175 billion in improperly collected revenue, said bluntly: “I get a feeling the American people won’t see it.”

Amid the fallout from the court’s decision on Saturday (Washington time), Trump said he was withdrawing his endorsement of Jeff Hurd, who was among six Republicans in Congress who supported a resolution earlier this month to repeal Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

The decision to retract an endorsement underlines Trump’s depth of feeling about his tariff regime, and what is at stake for Republicans who fail to support it.

“Congressman Hurd is one of a small number of Legislators who have let me and our Country down,” Trump wrote on social media. “He is more interested in protecting Foreign Countries that have been ripping us off for decades than he is the United States of America.”

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