White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett says he remains “very, very confident” that courts will support President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda.
Hassett made the statement during a Sunday morning appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” telling host George Stephanopoulos that the White House still expects “Plan A” to work out.
“And so we’re very thrilled. We are very confident that the judges would uphold this law. And so I think that that’s Plan A, and we’re very, very confident that Plan A is all we’re ever going to need,” Hassett said.
“But if, for some reason, some judge were to say that it’s not a national emergency when more Americans die from fentanyl than have ever died in all American wars combined, that’s not an emergency that the president has authority over – if that ludicrous statement is made by a judge somewhere, then we’ll have other alternatives that we can pursue as well to make sure that we make American trade fair again,” he added.
TWELVE STATES SUE TRUMP OVER TARIFFS, CLAIMING THEY’RE ‘ILLEGAL’ AND HARMFUL TO US ECONOMY
White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett defended President Donald Trump’s tariff plan on Sunday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Hassett’s appearance comes after a federal court struck down Trump’s tariffs in a ruling last week, only for an appeals court to issue a temporary stay protecting the tariffs during litigation.
The appeals court ruling paused a decision by the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT), thus allowing Trump to continue to enact the 10% baseline tariff and the so-called “reciprocal tariffs” that he announced April 2 under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.
The CIT had ruled unanimously to block the tariffs the day before.
FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS 5 TRUMP TARIFF EXECUTIVE ORDERS
President Donald Trump has used the threat of tariffs throughout his opening months in office. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Members of the three-judge panel who were appointed by…
