President Donald Trump sharply criticized the Supreme Court Saturday over decisions rejecting his emergency tariff authority and effort to restrict birthright citizenship, calling the rulings a “sad chapter in the life and times of America.”

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

President Donald Trump launched a new attack on the Supreme Court Saturday, accusing the justices of issuing damaging decisions on two of his major second-term priorities: tariffs and birthright citizenship.

In a Truth Social statement, Trump said the court had “lacked the Courage to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” and blamed its rulings for financial losses and changes to his administration’s immigration agenda.

“Unfortunately, the United States Supreme Court has lacked the Courage to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Over the last 6 months, with their faulty, political, and ridiculous decisions on TARIFFS and Birthright Citizenship, they have cost the United States of America Trillions of Dollars, and forever damaged the way people become Citizens of our great Country. It has been a sad chapter in the life and times of America, but we will prevail!” Trump wrote.

Trump’s reference to tariffs concerned the Supreme Court’s Feb. 20 ruling in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, which rejected his administration’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, as authority for imposing broad import tariffs.

The court held that IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.

The ruling addressed a centerpiece of Trump’s trade strategy, under which the administration had imposed tariffs by invoking emergency economic powers rather than relying exclusively on trade statutes containing specific tariff authority.

The court noted that the Constitution gives Congress the power to impose duties and tariffs and concluded that Congress had not transferred that authority to the president through IEEPA.

Trump has strongly disputed the decision and has argued that eliminating the tariffs deprived the United States of enormous amounts of revenue and weakened Washington’s leverage in trade negotiations.

His Saturday assertion that the ruling has cost the country “Trillions of Dollars” represents the president’s estimate and characterization of its economic consequences. Publicly available figures cited after the ruling showed that the federal government had collected approximately $166 billion in duties under the disputed IEEPA tariffs before the court invalidated that use of the statute.

The administration subsequently continued pursuing tariffs through other statutory authorities not covered by the Supreme Court’s IEEPA decision.

Trump’s criticism of the court also focused on its June 30 ruling in Trump v. Barbara, which rejected his attempt to restrict birthright citizenship for certain children born in the United States.

The case arose from Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order declaring that children born in the United States would not automatically qualify for citizenship when their parents were unlawfully present or when their mothers were temporarily present and their fathers were neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents.

The Supreme Court held that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are therefore citizens at birth under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the court’s opinion. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined it. Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment while disagreeing with part of the majority’s reasoning. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented in whole or in part.

The ruling preserved the longstanding understanding that, with limited exceptions, children born on U.S. soil acquire citizenship at birth regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Trump had argued that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment permitted the government to deny automatic citizenship to children whose parents were in the country illegally or temporarily.

The court rejected that interpretation, relying in part on the history of the 14th Amendment and the Supreme Court’s 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

Trump characterized that result Saturday as having “forever damaged the way people become Citizens of our great Country.”

The president’s criticism marks another public confrontation with a Supreme Court that includes three justices he appointed during his first term: Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett.

Although the court’s conservative majority has ruled in favor of Trump administration positions in a number of major cases, it has also rejected several initiatives central to the president’s second-term agenda.

Trump criticized the justices earlier this week after the court declined to let his administration implement new U.S. Postal Service requirements affecting mail ballots shortly before the November midterm elections. Justices Alito and Thomas dissented from that decision.

That ruling prompted Trump to criticize several conservative justices, including members he appointed, while praising Alito and Thomas.

His Saturday statement shifted attention back to the earlier tariff and citizenship cases, both of which involved substantial questions about the limits of presidential authority.

In the tariff case, the court concluded that an emergency-powers statute did not give the president the tariff authority asserted by the administration.

In the citizenship case, the court concluded that the 14th Amendment itself protected citizenship at birth for the children covered by Trump’s executive order.

Trump rejected both outcomes as legally and politically misguided.

“Over the last 6 months, with their faulty, political, and ridiculous decisions on TARIFFS and Birthright Citizenship, they have cost the United States of America Trillions of Dollars, and forever damaged the way people become Citizens of our great Country,” Trump wrote.

He closed the statement by describing the period as “a sad chapter in the life and times of America,” while adding: “but we will prevail!”

Original article