Trump Says Court Ruling on Tariffs Could Cause a ‘1929-Style Great Depression’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 8, 2025: President Trump is warning everyone that if a court scraps his tariff policy, we could see an economic disaster like the Great Depression. He posted on his social media, saying that if a Radical Left Court throws out the tariffs, it would mess up the biggest amount of money, wealth, and power the U.S.A. has ever had, leading to big economic problems. This warning comes as a federal appeals court is trying to make a decision on whether the tariffs are legal, since some states and businesses are against them.
What Trump Said and Why
Trump said on Truth Social that his tariffs are why hundreds of billions of dollars are flowing into the country, and they’re helping the stock market. He said that if a court rules against these tariffs now, it would be a judicial tragedy and put the country in 1929-style danger. He said this while that federal appeals court is thinking about the challenge to the tariffs.
Trump thinks his trade policies are making the economy very strong. He said that getting rid of them now would cause so much damage that the country would be impossible to ever get better. He also complained about the timing of the legal challenge, saying it should have been started long ago, at the beginning of the case.
Why the Tariffs Are Being Challenged
Trump is in a tough legal fight over how he’s using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to put these tariffs in place. A group of states run by Democrats and some small businesses are suing the Trump administration, arguing that the IEEPA, which is normally used to punish enemies or freeze assets, doesn’t give the president the right to impose these tariffs. They say that the Constitution says that Congress should be the one making these decisions.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is hearing the case right now. A lower court, the US Court of International Trade, already said in May that Trump went too far and blocked the tariffs. The appeals court, with 11 judges, seems unsure about the administration’s reasons for the tariffs, but they haven’t made a decision yet. Most people think this case will end up in the Supreme Court.
What Economists Say
Economists and market analysts aren’t so sure about Trump’s claim that getting rid of the tariffs would cause a Great Depression. Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, thinks that’s largely wrong. He said that the tariff money, while a lot, is nothing compared to the total federal budget and that getting rid of the tariffs wouldn’t make or break the economy.
Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management, went even further, saying that a court decision to get rid of the tariffs would be a huge positive and that financial markets would have a massive celebration. He said that the tariffs have been a shadow tax on consumers and that when the trade war was first announced, it caused one of the biggest market drops in decades.
What’s Going on with the Economy and Other Countries
This fight over the tariffs is happening when global trade is already tense. The Trump administration has put tariffs on many countries, including China, Canada, Mexico, and India. These tariffs have caused those countries to retaliate, which has hurt relationships with them, like with India, which stopped buying US arms and canceled a high-level defense visit because of the tariffs.
People disagree about how the tariffs are affecting the economy. Trump says they’re good for the economy, but Moody’s warned that the 50% tariff on Indian goods could slow down India’s GDP growth. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are also worried that this could undo years of making trade more open.
