President Donald Trump said on Friday he would not ask Congress to vote on imposing his wide-sweeping tariffs after the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional.
Trump was asked during a White House press conference about seeking congressional approval in the wake of the high court’s ruling.
“I don’t have to,” Trump said. “I have the right to do tariffs, and it’s all been approved by Congress, so there’s no reason to.”
Trump said that if he were to ask Congress, he “would probably get it,” but there was no need because there are other “methods, practices, statutes, and authorities” available.
“Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected,” Trump said. “We have alternatives. Great alternative, could be more money. We’ll take in more money and be a lot stronger for it.”
The House voted last week to repeal the president’s tariffs on Canada. Overall, six House Republicans joined with almost every single Democrat to end the duty on Canadian goods. Trump downplayed the rebuke from members of his own party, even misstating the number of House Republicans that bucked him on the vote.
“We lost two Republicans or three Republicans, because they’re not good Republicans,” he said, adding, “We have great unity. There’s great unity in the Republican Party.”
Numerous House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), said they wanted to defer on voting to repeal tariffs until the Supreme Court’s ruling was decided so as not to act prematurely. But Democrats and a handful of Republicans expressed concerns that the president was overstepping his executive authority.
“I’ve been saying this for 12 months. Article 1 gives Congress the authority for tariffs,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told the Washington Examiner after the Supreme Court’s ruling. “Our constitutional checks and balances still work.”
With the Supreme Court’s decision, it is unclear whether Democrats will continue to force votes on repealing Trump’s tariffs against Mexico and Brazil. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that it should not have taken a ruling from the top court to stop “Trump’s harmful tariff regime.”
“For more than a year, Republicans repeatedly blocked Democrats’ efforts to overturn these clearly illegal taxes that have burdened American families,” Meeks said, referring to House Republicans’ banning votes on bills to repeal tariffs last year.
REPUBLICAN DON BACON WARNS TRUMP: NO TARIFF BAILOUT COMING FROM CONGRESS
That ban expired at the end of January. Three Republicans voted with all Democrats to stop an extension of the ban, which allowed the House to vote on repealing Canada tariffs.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Meeks on whether Democrats will move forward with votes on Mexico and Brazil.
David Sivak contributed to this report.