- The Washington Times - Updated: 4:38 p.m. on Monday, February 23, 2026

President Trump said Monday he had no plans to consult Congress on new tariffs, and threatened even higher levies on countries that “play games” with existing trade deals.

Mr. Trump’s warnings signaled no retreat from his aggressive trade posturing after the Supreme Court ruled he unlawfully swiped congressional taxing powers by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act as his primary tariff-setting tool.

Over the weekend, the president imposed at 15% global tariff under section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. The tariffs are valid for 150 days, after which Congress must renew them.



“The court has also approved all other Tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used,” Mr. Trump said on social media.

While the Supreme Court settled the long-simmering fight over IEEPA with its major ruling on Friday, the administration’s attempt to bounce back sowed confusion across Wall Street, Brussels and Seoul.

Mr. Trump replaced tariffs ranging from 10% to 50% under IEEPA with the global 15% tariff.

U.S. stocks plummeted as investors attempted to make sense of the new landscape, while the executive arm of the European Union delayed votes on the trade deal it struck with Mr. Trump last summer.

Countries want to know if the U.S. can execute agreed-upon terms after the U.S. court zeroed out the IEEPA tariffs that formed the backbone of foreign deals.

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“Pure tariff chaos from the US administration. No one can make sense of it anymore — only open questions and growing uncertainty for the EU and other U.S. trading partners,” said Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, on X.

India postponed a delegation visit to Washington to solidify the deal it made to set its tariff rate at 18% instead of 50%, and the ruling threatened to delay ratification of a U.S.-South Korea trade deal.

“The government will comprehensively review the content of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling and the position of the U.S. government, and will examine its future response plans in a direction that best serves the national interest,” the foreign ministry in Seoul said.

South Korea had been working to ratify a deal with Mr. Trump that imposed a 15% tariff on its goods, down from a threatened rate of 25%. In exchange, South Korea promised to invest $350 billion in U.S. projects, though Mr. Trump said Seoul was dragging its feet.

Japan signaled it planned to abide by its commitment to invest $550 billion in U.S. projects in exchange for a 15% tariff rate. However, a senior tax official in the country’s Liberal Democratic Party stated that the ruling has sparked some confusion about how it will all work.

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“To be very frank, it’s a real mess,” Itsunori Onodera told Fuji TV on Sunday.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said he is working with trading partners to reach workable outcomes, and that no country had sought to back out of negotiated deals.

Mr. Trump took a harder line in a Truth Social post.

“Any Country that wants to ’play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ’Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to,” he wrote on Truth Social, intentionally using lowercase letters for the Supreme Court. “BUYER BEWARE!!!”

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Mr. Trump is pivoting from IEEPA, which is no longer at his disposal, to “section” authorities that allow him to impose tariffs on national security grounds or to correct trade imbalances. These authorities require formal investigation, and can take a while to implement.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said his side has no intention of extending those tariffs once they end in July.

Tariffs are duties imposed on foreign goods when they are brought into U.S. markets. The importer of record, often a U.S. entity, must pay the tariff to customs officials when the goods arrive.

A collection of small businesses said the IEEPA tariffs were a cost burden and defeated Mr. Trump in court. 

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Collectively, importers paid up to $175 billion under IEEPA and want their money back.

Senate Democrats filed legislation on Monday requiring Customs and Border Protection to refund the money within 180 days.

A companion House bill from Reps. Steven Horsford, Nevada Democrat, and Janelle Bynum, Oregon Democrat, sets a more stringent deadline of 90 days.

“When the government takes money without proper authority, it doesn’t get to keep it,” Mr. Horsford said.

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection told importers that it would officially stop collecting tariffs under IEEPA authorities at midnight on Tuesday.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.

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