US court of appeals temporarily reinstates Trump’s tariffs during appeal
Dominic Rushe
An appeals court has agreed that Trump’s tariffs could remain in place pending an appeal hearing by the Trump administration.
A US trade court ruled yesterday that the tariff regime was illegal in a dramatic twist that could block Trump’s controversial global trade policy.
If the administration loses the appeal, it is expected to take the case to the supreme court.
Key events
In his remarks to reporters a few minutes ago, Trump’s chief trade adviser Peter Navarro tried hard to cast the legal challenges to the retaliatory and trafficking tariffs imposed unilaterally by the president as both political and illegitimate.
To that end, Navarro urged reporters to report his false claims that the 12 states that filed suit were all Democratic states representing coastal elites, and that the five importers that told the court the new import taxes posed a grave threat to their businesses all sold “crap from China”.
“A detail that you should put on your stories: I mean, how did this suit come about? Twelve states of this union sued and every single one of them is a blue state, from the left coast of Oregon and Washington to New York and Connecticut on the elitist coast”, Navarro said, wrongly. In fact, Washington was not a party to the suit, while Arizona and Nevada, states that both voted for Trump in the 2024 election and are not on either coast, were parties to the suit. Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, which joined the suit, are also not coastal states.
“The other parties to the suit were a bunch of importers who buy a bunch of cheap, subsidized crap from China”, Navarro added, also incorrectly.
The five owner-operated businesses that sued are: VOS Selections, a wine importer; FishUSA, Inc, which sells sportfishing tackle and related gear, from Canada, South Korea and Kenya, as well as China; Genova Pipe, which manufactures ABS pipe in the US using imported resin from South Korea and Taiwan; MicroKits LLC, which makes educational electronic kits and musical instruments in the US using imported components; and Terry Precision Cycling, which specializes in women’s cycling apparel.
White House will find a way to impose tariffs even if it loses in court, Navarro says
Speaking to the media outside the White House, Trump’s chief trade adviser Peter Navarro said the administration “will respond forcefully” to the US trade court’s ruling on Trump’s tariff agenda and plans to “fight this all the way up the chain”.
The administration would seek to enact tariffs through other means if it ultimately loses the court fights over its trade policy, Navarro continued.
You can assume even if we lose, we will do it another way.
He said the tariffs would remain in place for now following a court stay and that the administration is still in talks with other countries to continue trade negotiations.
Robert Mackey
On the federal appeals court’s ruling on Thursday that Trump’s tariffs can stay in place, for now, Raffi Melkonian, a federal appellate lawyer based in Houston, explains on social media that the temporary administrative stay of the order blocking the tariffs from the US court of international trade “does *not* mean the Court will block the order for the entire appeal”.
The text of the appeals court’s order says this: “The request for an immediate administrative stay is granted to the extent that the judgments and the permanent injunctions entered by the Court of International Trade in these cases are temporarily stayed until further notice while this court considers the motions papers.”
Of the 11 judges who approved the temporary stay, allowing Trump’s dozens of retaliatory and trafficking tariffs to remain in place, three were appointed by Republican presidents – one by George H.W. Bush and two by George W. Bush – and the other eight by Democratic presidents – one by Bill Clinton, five by Barack Obama and two by Joe Biden.
US court of appeals temporarily reinstates Trump’s tariffs during appeal
Dominic Rushe
An appeals court has agreed that Trump’s tariffs could remain in place pending an appeal hearing by the Trump administration.
A US trade court ruled yesterday that the tariff regime was illegal in a dramatic twist that could block Trump’s controversial global trade policy.
If the administration loses the appeal, it is expected to take the case to the supreme court.
Here is my colleague Lauren Aratani’s story on the Federal Reserve’s rare, strongly worded statement today, which came after chair Jerome Powell spoke with Donald Trump at the White House this morning.
She writes: “That the Fed, which tends to be extremely reserved with public statements, issued the brief memo shows that officials are aware of Trump’s pressure campaign [to lower interest rates] and are standing firm on the Fed’s independence.”
US will not tolerate Chinese ‘exploitation’ of universities or theft of research, says state department
The United States will not tolerate “exploitation” of American universities by the Chinese Communist Party or theft of US research and intellectual property, state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Thursday.
Bruce told reporters in a briefing the department will look seriously at Chinese students in the United States who are deemed a threat or a problem, after secretary of state Marco Rubio announced Washington would start “aggressively” revoking visas.
Asked what changes Trump wants to see in the “big, beautiful bill”, Leavitt says Trump is looking at recommendations from colleagues in the Senate.
Those negotiations are continuing, she says, but Trump’s “priorities in the bill are non-negotiable in terms of the tax priorities he wants to see – the large tax cuts, the border investments that is currently in this bill – he is not going to allow them to go away”.
Trump’s cabinet will work with Doge employees after Musk’s exit, White House says
Trump’s cabinet will collaborate with staff from Doge across various federal agencies to advance ongoing efforts, Leavitt says.
She says cabinet secretaries have been “working hand in hand with Elon Musk, and they’ll continue to work with the respective Doge employees who have onboarded as political appointees at all of these agencies”.
Asked who Doge’s new leader is, Leavitt says: “The Doge leaders are each and every member of the president’s cabinet and the president himself who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste fraud and abuse in our government.”
Leavitt says she believes the number of immigrants who have “self-deported” so far is “in the thousands”.
Leavitt says the administration hopes Russia and Ukraine will hold direct talks in Istanbul next week.
She cannot confirm at this time if the US will participate.
White House says Trump has ‘other legal authorities’ to implement tariffs
Top US officials have been in touch with their counterparts in other countries to discuss the trade court ruling against Trump’s tariff agenda, Leavitt says.
The White House is reviewing other avenues for the Trump trade policies, she says, adding that Trump spoke to Japan’s leader earlier today to discuss the issue.
Leavitt says the president has “other legal authorities he can use to implement tariffs” and the Trump administration “is willing to use those”.
White House thanks Elon Musk for his service
Leavitt says of Elon Musk, who quietly departed from his role at the White House last night: “We thank him for his service. We thank him for getting Doge off the ground and the effort to cut waste, fraud and abuse will continue.”
She dodges several times a request to comment on what Trump makes of Musk’s comments that were reported yesterday criticising Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” for increasing the US budget deficit and undermining Doge’s cost-cutting efforts. Later that day Trump said he would be negotiating the bill as he wasn’t pleased with some aspects of it, but he hasn’t commented further on Musk’s criticisms.
Leavitt says Jill Biden was “complicit in the cover-up” of former president Joe Biden’s declining health.
I think, frankly, the former first lady should certainly speak up about what she saw in regards to her husband and when she saw it and what she knew.
This was a clear cover-up and Jill Biden was certainly complicit in that cover-up. There’s documentation, video evidence of her clearly shielding her husband away from the cameras.
They were just on The View last week, still saying everything is fine. She’s still lying to the American public, she still thinks the American people are so stupid they’re going to believe her lies and frankly it’s insulting and she needs to answer for it.
White House says discussions on US proposal for Gaza ceasefire are ‘ongoing’
Leavitt says discussions on US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s new proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza are “ongoing”.
She says Witkoff and Donald Trump submitted a ceasefire proposal to Hamas that had been “backed and supported” by Israel, confirming earlier reports in the Israeli media.
Israel signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas.
I can also confirm that those discussions are continuing, and we hope that a ceasefire in Gaza will take place so we can return all of the hostages home.
Earlier we reported that Hamas said it had received the proposal and is studying it.
Leavitt does not comment on reports that Trump is poised to make an announcement on the deal. She tells reporters:
If there is an announcement to be made, it will come from the White House – the president, myself, or special envoy Witkoff.
