WASHINGTON, Feb 25 – U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will consider imposing “even stronger” tariffs, warning that American trading partners should not have any second thoughts over trade deals already reached with his administration following a top court ruling that struck down his signature economic tool.
In his first State of the Union address since returning to the White House a little over a year ago, Trump highlighted what he sees as his accomplishments, ranging from a drop in the number of illegal immigrants to soaring stock prices.
As the United States heads toward its 250th anniversary in July and midterm elections in November, Trump declared at the outset, “I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before, and a turnaround for the ages.”
Trump’s speech came after the Supreme Court on Friday invalidated a wide swath of his second-term tariffs, dealing a major defeat to the cornerstone of his economic and foreign policy agendas.
But Trump categorically defended his strategy and vowed to impose more powerful tariffs under a different legal mechanism, without congressional authorization.
Trump asserted that his administration’s tariffs “took in hundreds of billions of dollars to make great deals for our country, both economically and on a national security basis.”
Calling the highest court’s ruling “very unfortunate,” he argued that other countries are, however, satisfied with the existing agreements with the United States and almost all of them want to keep them intact.
After a new 10 percent global tariff to replace the invalidated ones took effect earlier Tuesday, he showed no signs of backing down on his aggressive trade strategy, noting that there would be more to come under “fully approved and tested alternative legal statutes.”
“They’re a little more complex, but they’re actually probably better, leading to a solution that will be even stronger than before,” the 79-year-old president said, adding that he believes as time goes by, they will “replace the modern-day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love.”
Trump reiterated his claim that there has been significant progress in making the United States more affordable for the working class.
But many polls have shown that a majority of voters disapprove of Trump’s job performance, with their dissatisfaction over his handling of rising living costs particularly strong.
As he has been redoubling efforts to regain public support, Trump said, “Moving forward, factories, jobs, investment and trillions of dollars will continue pouring into the United States of America, because we finally have a president who puts America first.”
Trump also used his televised prime-time address to discuss his “peace through strength” approach to global affairs. But he had no specific reference to Asian affairs, including those related to his planned trip to China from March 31, the situation surrounding Taiwan and North Korea’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons.
His speech delivery coincided with the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago.
Promoting himself as a peacemaker, he has repeatedly claimed to have ended eight wars in less than a year in office, such as long-running border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand.
But he has not achieved his stated goal of immediately stopping the invasion, and the cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, brokered by him and implemented in October, remains fragile.
Trump began this year with an audacious military operation in Venezuela, removing the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, from power after accusing him of working with drug cartels to flood the United States with massive amounts of cocaine.
In recent days, he has been warning Iran of serious consequences if negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail.
On Tuesday, he stressed, “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen.”,
