The US Supreme Court struck down President Trump's global tariffs in a 6-3 ruling during the recording of the Superpowers podcast - and geopolitical analyst Peter Zeihan explained in real time why it will not change the trajectory of American trade policy.
As "Hvylya" reports, the Court found that Trump overstepped his authority by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose the tariffs. Voting to strike them down were Justices Roberts, Gorsuch, Barrett, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson. Dissenting were Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh.
Zeihan was unimpressed. "The Trump administration has repeatedly ignored the courts. But the Supreme Court - this is a first," he acknowledged. However, he predicted Trump would simply find new legal justifications for tariffs. "He's the type to double down unless he's been completely boxed in. This isn't boxed in. The challenge will have to be repeated all over again, with a different law and different justification."
The only mechanism to permanently block the tariffs would be a two-thirds congressional vote - a mathematical impossibility given MAGA's grip on the Republican Party. Zeihan also corrected host James Heappey's suggestion that tariff refunds would mean "handing billions back to other countries." The money, he clarified, would go to American companies that paid for the imports - not foreign governments. The Munich Security Conference report earlier this year described Washington's posture as increasingly linking security guarantees with economic interests.
With midterm elections only seven months away, the political dynamics make confrontation even less likely. "Any Republican in Congress who crosses the administration on this will absolutely face a primary challenger backed by the President," Zeihan noted. The ruling's timing, he said, is "perfect" - for making American politics even more volatile. Zeihan has also described the current US approach as driven by raw transactional logic rather than institutional norms.