Trump's global tariffs deemed illegal, blocked by US Court of International Trade

Erik Larson, Bloomberg News on May 28, 2025

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NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s global tariffs were deemed illegal and blocked by the U.S. trade court, dealing a major blow to a pillar of the Republican’s economic agenda.

The ruling can now be appealed by the Trump administration in federal court.

A panel of three judges at the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan issued a ruling Wednesday siding with Democratic-led states and a group of small businesses that argued Trump had wrongfully invoked an emergency law to justify the levies.

The decision is one of the biggest setbacks yet for Trump in court amid a wave of lawsuits over executive orders in which he is testing the limits of presidential power. Others are challenging Trump’s mass firings of federal workers, restrictions on birthright citizenship and efforts to slash federal spending already approved by Congress.

Global markets have fluctuated wildly since Trump announced the levies in a sweeping executive order an April 2. Since then, trillions of dollars in market value have been shed and regained amid weeks of delays, reversals and announcements about potential trade deals, particularly with China.

White House representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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(With assistance from Malathi Nayak.)

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