White House On Tariffs: “Nothing’s Really Changed”

The White House on Thursday downplayed the implications of a court ruling that blocked some of President Trump’s tariff measures, and suggested they will win on appeal.

“If anybody thinks this caught the administration by surprise, think again,” Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro told Bloomberg TV. “Nothing’s really changed.”

Navarro was responding to a late Wednesday ruling by a 3-judge panel on the US Court of International Trade, who found that President Trump exceeded his authority when he invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify some of the tariffs.

“The big picture here is we’ve got a very strong case with IEEPA,” said Navarro. “But the court basically tells us, if we lose that, we just do some other things.”

According to Navarro, US Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer will speak to the tools available, and “you’ll be hearing from him soon.”

Navarro floated Section 122 tariffs, which would involve levies of up to 15% for 150 days.

Wednesday’s ruling gives the administration 10 days to carry out its order, which applies to Trump’s global flat tariff, boosted rates on China and others, and his fentantyl-related tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico. It does not affect other levies imposed via other methods, such as Section 232 and 301 levies.

Meanwhile, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said they aren’t pulling the trigger on any alternative options just yet – telling Fox Business that the administration is confident that the court ruling is wrong and will be overturned on appeal.

“There are different approaches that would take a couple of months to put these in place and using procedures that have been approved in the past or approved in the last administration, but we’re not planning to pursue those right now,” said Hassett.

Kevin Hassett on tariffs: “President Trump has a hat which is the accurate response to what that person said, which is ‘Trump always wins.’ A lot of people are wearing that hat, and ‘Trump was always right.’ But Trump does always win these negotiations.” pic.twitter.com/VFFSI2GR8B

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2025

As we noted Wednesday evening following the ruling, Goldman Sachs deemed it a nothingburger – writing;

Bottom Line: The Court of International Trade blocked the tariffs the Trump administration imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The ruling blocks 6.7pp of tariff increase since the start of the year, including the tariffs on Canada, China, Mexico, and the 10% baseline tariff, but does not affect sectoral tariffs. As the administration can impose an across-the-board tariff and country-specific tariffs under other legal authorities (e.g., Sec. 122 and Sec. 301) this ruling represents a setback for the administration’s tariff plans and increases uncertainty but might not change the final outcome for most major US trading partners.

And the punchline:

As it seems unlikely that the administration could win an appeal in the 10 days it has under the CIT order to remove the tariffs, we would expect the White House to announce a similar across-the-board tariff using Sec. 122. This would then provide the administration time to launch a series of Sec. 301 cases against larger trading partners, potentially opening the door to imposing tariffs higher than 10% in some cases. However, it seems unlikely that the administration could complete Sec. 301 investigations on every US trading partner within the next several months. If the court’s ruling against the IEEPA-based tariffs remains in effect, this could mean that smaller trading partners and/or countries with smaller trade surpluses with the US might not face a baseline tariff when Sec. 122 tariffs roll off after 150 days (assuming the Trump administration cannot find a legal means to extend them).

“There’s no question that there’s an economic emergency,” said Navarro, adding that there’s also an emergency “in a world where China has killed over a million Americans with fentanyl poison, and we took this step to stop that.”