Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said he will attend the Supreme Court’s oral arguments regarding President Trump’s sweeping tariffs after the commander in chief reneged on his plans to go himself.
“I’m actually going to go and sit, hopefully in the front row, and have a ringside seat,” Bessent said during a Monday appearance on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
“This is a matter of national security,” he added.
The Treasury secretary said he plans to emphasize that Trump’s presidential trade powers are being used to govern foreign partnerships during a time of “economic emergency.”
Earlier this year, Bessent said he believes the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Trump administration.
However, he also acknowledged that White House officials have a backup plan in case the justices strike the president’s attempt to justify setting trade rates under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act without approval from Congress.
“We think we’re going to win at the Supreme Court. We are close to a tipping point where we could have financial instability due to these large and persistent trade deficits,” Bessent said during a Fox News interview released in September.
“So we are trying to head off a crisis.”
The Treasury secretary said Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 would authorize the president to set new or additional duties on nations discriminating against U.S. commerce. The measure would permit tariffs of up to 50 percent for five months against imports from other countries, he added.
The president has argued that a large influx of fentanyl coming into the U.S. is reason enough to declare a nationwide emergency and impose tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico. He later declared an emergency over trade deficits as well, in an effort to implement his “reciprocal” tariffs on trading partners across the globe and pressure them into deals.
Source: The Hill
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