A court struck down the bulk of Trump’s tariffs, in a major setback to his economic agenda. Bloomberg has the latest. Harvard has its universitywide commencement today, as it’s facing more funding threats. Its president speaks out in an interview with NPR. Trump has recently issued a number of pardons. Reporting from the Wall Street Journal provides a look at how politics factored into those decisions. Plus, Elon Musk announced that he’s leaving government, Israel said it has killed the leader of Hamas, and how an airline is fighting back against bad passenger etiquette. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Thursday, May 29th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the running theme among the people Trump is pardoning. As Harvard students graduate, its president speaks out. And Elon Musk hands in his special government employee pass.
But first, a federal trade court has struck down President Trump's sweeping tariffs, ruling that he exceeded his legal authority. In a major setback to the administration's economic agenda, the three-person panel made up of Obama, Reagan and Trump appointees unanimously declared his use of an Emergency Powers Act did not give him the power to levy tariffs unilaterally.
The case was brought forward in Oregon by a group of small businesses and a coalition of states and was heard by a relatively obscure court, taking many by surprise in its announcement. A White House spokesperson said they would appeal the decision.
The ruling puts at least a temporary halt to most of the recently announced tariffs, although many of the most eye-catching moves had already been paused or dramatically scaled back. It means an end to the 30% tariffs on China, the 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada, and the across-the-board 10% tariffs for all nations.
Trump had argued that the country was facing a national emergency due to a persistent trade deficit, which he said justified the decision to act without Congress. Ryan Goodman is the editor of Just Security, a nonpartisan website that analyzes legal cases focused on democracy. He spoke to CNN following the news.
The court's argument basically says this goes back to Congress. It boils down to the idea that there was always a poor fit. For the tariffs being invoked by the administration, because the administration says they were operating under this emergency National Security Act. And the court says, no, you aren't. The National Security Act was not built for something like this.
It's really Congress's authority to give it to you and you don't have it yet.
CNN notes that the 25 percent auto tariffs stay in place, as a different law had been used in that case. Yesterday, shortly before this news broke, President Trump took issue with a reporter asking for his reaction to a phrase coined by a Financial Times writer to describe Trump's tariff threats, followed by walkbacks. Taco Trade, an acronym short for Trump Always Chickens Out.
Six months ago, this country was stone-cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country people didn't think it was going to survive, and you ask a nasty question like that. It's called negotiation.
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