Twenty-five states sued me Monday over my beautiful new tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, covering 99.4% of American imports, which is a number so BIG it practically won the case already. The states call the tariffs “arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law,” very nasty words from people who do not understand the law, the Country, or the art of winning. Brazil and Japan called them “unjustified,” and China called them an “excuse for political manipulation,” which is exactly what people say when they are losing a GREAT deal.
These tariffs took effect in July because foreign countries have failed to deal with forced labor, which is a very serious problem, a terrible problem, and one I am solving with a tax on American families. The White House says I am using lawful authority to protect American businesses, and Governor Kathy Hochul says my tariffs are an illegal tax on hardworking families. I disagree with her completely, but I have always said that New York has a very low-energy governor problem.
The Supreme Court already struck down my earlier tariffs, sending tens of billions of dollars in refunds to companies that paid them. That was not a loss. It was a REFUND VICTORY, a beautiful legal maneuver in which the Court thought it had defeated me but actually returned money to great American companies, the best companies, which now know I am the greatest tariff president, and maybe the greatest president of all time, period. I always knew the tariffs would be challenged, because I have the best foresight and the best instincts. Everybody knows that, very smart people especially.
The new lawsuit is part of the plan. People are saying it is 4D chess, many people, very smart people, and they are correct because I am playing chess while the states are filing paperwork. They think they sued me, but they actually sued the United States, which means they sued themselves, which means I won. The best lawyers are telling me this is the BIGGEST legal win anyone has ever seen, bigger than any win in history, possibly the greatest legal victory ever, although I have not asked the lawyers to put that in writing because the paperwork is already very large.
The 99.4% number is also extremely important because it means almost everybody is covered, and when almost everybody is covered, nobody can say the policy is selective. I did not choose 99.4% because it sounded tremendous, but it does sound tremendous, just tremendous, and the response to this policy is the biggest response in tariff history. The other 0.6% is probably made up of countries that have never made a deal in their lives, and I will be dealing with them soon.
Critics ask how a country can prove it has properly addressed forced labor. That is a very unfair question because the answer is obvious: they should make a deal with me. If they cannot prove they solved the problem, they pay; if they prove they solved the problem, they pay less; and if they complain, they pay more because complaining is a sign of weakness. Everybody wins, especially the United States, and especially me — I mean American workers — although the workers are going to be EXTREMELY grateful when they see what the prices become.
The tariffs are protecting American workers so successfully that companies can now pay more for imported goods, families can pay more for everything, and foreign governments can pay more attention to me. That is what I call a perfect deal. I had nothing to do with the earlier tariffs being struck down, nothing whatsoever, but I did create the refunds, the lawsuit, the negotiations, and probably the Supreme Court’s decision if you look at the map correctly. I am completely responsible for the victory and completely unrelated to the loss, which is a very sophisticated legal position.
And now the states are celebrating because they think they have stopped me. They have not stopped me. They have made the case stronger, the deal bigger, and the victory more historic. They will all come back eventually and say, “Sir, Sir, we were wrong, you are the greatest tariff thinker in history,” and I will say thank you, although I may not hear them over the sound of the 99.4%. Diklis Chump did this, very few people could have done it, believe me — and if the Court strikes it down again, that’s proof I won twice, and if they strike it down a third time, I’ll have won three times — it’s simple math, everybody says so.