The Wall Street Journal editorial board took a swipe at President Trump’s recent tariff threats, alleging the administration is using a 48-year-old law to start a trade war.
In a recent op-ed, the board warned of a possible jolt in consumer prices once the tariffs go into full effect and urged someone to file a lawsuit in response.
“The President invokes a law that doesn’t give him power to impose sweeping tariffs,” they wrote in the article’s subhead. “Someone should sue.”
The pressure comes after Trump introduced 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico and levied an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports. The taxes went into effect earlier this week, but the president has issued some exceptions in recent days.
The 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) permits the executive branch to investigate, block, prohibit or regulate any imports and exports with foreign countries in the case of an “unusual or extraordinary threat.”
The Journal’s editorial board further accused Trump of misinterpreting the law.
“He’s treating the North American economy as a personal plaything, as markets gyrate with each presidential whim,” the board wrote. “It’s doubtful Mr. Trump even has the power to impose these tariffs, and we hope his afflatus gets a legal challenge.”
The Journal described Trump’s actions as a “fundamental revision” of the IEEPA statute with direct quotes from the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA, a case involving the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to restrict emissions from power plants.
They noted a lack of historical precedent as a clear sign of Trump’s attempt to expand his authority under the guise of the fentanyl opioid crisis as a qualifying “national emergency.”
Under the ruling, the board wrote, “Congress must expressly authorize economically and politically significant executive actions, which Mr. Trump’s tariffs undeniably are.”
“Whether fentanyl is an unusual and extraordinary threat is debatable, however, since drugs have been pouring across the borders for decades,” they continued. “The bigger problem is that IEEPA doesn’t clearly authorize tariffs.”
The board also outlined the limits on presidential tariff authority, referring to a lower court’s decision to uphold former President Nixon’s use of a law predating IEEPA. In that case, Nixon imposed an across-the-board 10 percent tariff to address the nation’s growing trade deficit — which was later subjected to limitations by Congress.
“Mr. Trump’s tariff doesn’t appear reasonably related to the fentanyl emergency,” the Journal’s board wrote. “And Congress seemed to dislike Nixon’s use of emergency powers to deal with trade issues since three years later it gave the President limited authority to impose tariffs.”
“Mr. Trump may have shunned those authorities because he wants carte blanche to impose tariffs,” they added.
The Journal’s latest criticism follows an editorial from earlier this week, where the board slammed Trump for the “dumbest tariff plunge.”
