Trump tariffs face legal battle as White House remains confident in victory

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.

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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.

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Members of the three-judge panel who were appointed by Trump, former President Barack Obama and former President Ronald Reagan, ruled unanimously that Trump had overstepped his authority under IEEPA.

They noted that, as commander in chief, Trump does not have “unbounded authority” to impose tariffs under the emergency law.

For now, the burden of proof shifts to the government, which must convince the court it will suffer “irreparable harm” if the injunction remains in place, a high legal standard the Trump administration must meet.

Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report