Trump warns of ‘Great Depression’ if appeals court curbs tariff power

By Brett Rowland
The Center Square

President Donald Trump said Friday that if an appeals court curbs his tariff authority, America could sink into a “Great Depression.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit hearing is considering a legal challenge to Trump’s ability to impose tariffs. Trump is worried about the court’s eventual decision, although his attorneys plan to appeal to the Supreme Court if the ruling doesn’t go Trump’s way.

“Tariffs are having a huge positive impact on the Stock Market. Almost every day, new records are set,” he wrote Friday.

“If a Radical Left Court ruled against us at this late date, in an attempt to bring down or disturb the largest amount of money, wealth creation and influence the U.S.A. has ever seen, it would be impossible to ever recover, or pay back, these massive sums of money and honor,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “It would be 1929 all over again, a GREAT DEPRESSION!”

Trump said the court should have ruled at the beginning of the case.

“If they were going to rule against the wealth, strength, and power of America, they should have done so LONG AGO, at the beginning of the case, where our entire Country, while never having a chance at this kind of GREATNESS again, would not have been put in 1929 style jeopardy,” Trump wrote. “There is no way America could recover from such a judicial tragedy, but I know our Court System better than anyone, there is no one in history that has gone through the trials, tribulations and uncertainties such as I, and absolutely terrible, but also amazingly beautiful, things can happen.”

One court has already ruled that Trump overstepped his authority, but Trump appealed the ruling.

In May, the three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled that Congress did not give the president tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. The ruling voided Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and struck down other tariffs Trump issued under the IEEPA.

The administration appealed to the Federal Circuit, which ruled that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs could remain in place while the legal challenge continued.

Appellate court judges scrutinized President Donald Trump’s tariff authority during oral arguments at the end of July. Judges asked attorneys on both sides of the case tough questions about the president’s authority to restructure global trade without help from Congress.

Trump has used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to underpin his “Liberation Day” tariffs. On April 2, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners. He later suspended those higher tariffs but used the threat of higher taxes to get foreign nations to agree to new trade deals.

Trump’s full suite “Liberation Day” tariffs went into effect this week, hitting 66 countries, the 27-nation European Union and others.

The appeals court is expected to move quickly on its decision.