They aren’t.
A tariff is a tax on goods coming into the United States. The bill goes to the American company importing it. That company pays U.S. Customs. The money goes to the U.S. Treasury. On a $1,000 laptop, that’s $150 at the border. On toys, clothes, appliances, phones — the everyday things families buy — that cost doesn’t disappear. It shows up in the price tag. It’s a sales tax targeted not at billionaires, but at you.
Last week, the Supreme Court said the President could not use a broad emergency law to impose tariffs. The justices were clear: tariffs are taxes, and taxation belongs to Congress unless Congress clearly says otherwise.
Within hours, a different law was used to impose a new 15% tariff — the maximum allowed under that statute — lasting 150 days unless Congress extends it.
So the Court’s ruling wasn’t ignored. It was sidestepped. That’s Trump’s pattern. Do what you want and litigate like hell to keep it going.
There are more taiff sidesteps available. When this temporary tariff expires, other trade laws — enacted to address national security threats or specific unfair trade cases — can be invoked. Those laws were designed for narrow, defined purposes. They were not meant to function as permanent, across-the-board tax machines. But they can be stretched, as the emergency law was, until the Court steps in.
This is the pattern: push the edge of one statute, move to the next, keep the tax in place.
The key point is simple. This is a tax collected here, from American importers, under American law. And some of it will land in your shopping cart.
I’ll be covering what happens when the 150-day clock runs out — and what law might be used next — in my daily updates at Rottendog.Substack.com.