Sorry, Mr. President: If You Want Tariffs, You Need Congress


Published June 2, 2025

National Review Online


President Trump is understandably angry that the Court of International Trade has invalidated most of his sweeping tariffs. He should nevertheless do what the court says the Constitution requires and ask Congress to enact them into law.

The court’s ruling was a simple matter of applying well-settled constitutional law regarding the separation of powers. The Constitution clearly says that Congress, not the president, has the authority to levy tariffs. 

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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.

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