The Wall Street Journal’s editors are practically begging the president to abandon his signature economic policy.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board is encouraging President Donald Trump to “quit while he’s behind” after a court ruled his latest tariffs were illegal.
After the Supreme Court struck down the president’s crippling emergency tariffs on products from dozens of U.S. trade partners in February, Trump announced he was imposing a global 10 percent import duty under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act.
The law allows the president to unilaterally impose temporary import duties to remedy “balance-of-payments deficits,” which is not the same thing as the trade deficit that Trump used to justify the new tariffs, a three-judge panel of the U.S. trade court ruled on Thursday.
The opinion editors of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Journal wrote that the practical effects of the litigation could be limited since Section 122 only allows the president to impose tariffs for up to 150 days, with the clock likely to run out before the case is fully resolved.
But Trump’s zero-for-two record in court is more proof that the president should give up on his tariff crusade, the editors argued.
“It’s hard to recall another president so gung-ho about a policy as economically destructive and politically unpopular as are Mr. Trump’s border taxes,” they wrote.
The duties are paid by U.S. companies, which must either eat the costs or pass them along to consumers.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Federal Reserve research published in April found that tariffs implemented through November 2025 were responsible for a 3.1 percent surge in core goods inflation, resulting in a direct “dollar-for-dollar” price increase for consumers.
In the meantime, Trump’s war with Iran has sent gas prices soaring, heightening the risk of secondary inflation driven by higher energy costs.
Voters have taken note, with the latest polling showing just 31 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.
Last month, CNN’s resident data guru Harry Enten dubbed the tariffs the “biggest unforced political error” he could recall “in a long period of time, given that Trump’s approval ratings have been underwater ever since the tariffs were announced last year.”
But while the president has recognized that the Iran war is a political liability and is desperately searching for an off-ramp, he has remained steadfast in his support of tariffs.
The administration is getting ready to announce new Section 301 tariffs on products from specific countries based on allegedly unfair trade practices, the Journal reported.
That’s despite the fact that thanks to the Supreme Court’s February ruling, the administration has already been forced to start refunding $166 billion in illegally collected tariff revenue.
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