February 20, 2026 — Trump administration news, SCOTUS tariffs ruling, US-Iran negotiations | CNN

What we covered

*• Doubling down on tariffs: *President Donald Trump says he’s signed a 10% global tariff on top of the levies already in place after the Supreme Court ruled that his sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal.

*• Sharp criticism of justices: *Trump called those who ruled against his tariffs a “disgrace to our nation.” Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch joined with Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices in the 6-3 ruling.

• What happens next: Trump’s new levies can take effect for a maximum of 150 days, barring congressional approval for an extension. Meanwhile, the president signaled a protracted legal battle over whether his administration now has to pay companies billions of dollars in tariff refunds.

*• Iran negotiations: *Trump says he’s considering a limited military strike to pressure Tehran into a nuclear deal, but top Democrats are urging the administration not to strike without congressional approval.

Business groups cheer tariff decision and call for swift refunds

From CNN's Kate Trafecante and Vanessa YurkevichAmerican industry groups applauded the Supreme Court ruling Friday that struck down President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs.

The National Retail Federation, which represents retailers including Walmart, Kroger and Costco, said the decision provided “much-needed certainty for US businesses and manufacturers.”

“Clear and consistent trade policy is essential for economic growth, creating jobs and opportunities for American families,” said David French, NRFs executive vice president of government relations.

The US footwear industry said this decision “provides relief at a time when cost pressures have been significant.”

Ninety-nine percent of all shoes sold in the US are imported, according to the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America.

The court did not rule on the fate of the $130 billion in tariffs that has already been collected, but the NRF urged the lower courts to “ensure a seamless process to refund the tariffs to U.S. importers.”

The US Chamber of Commerce, which called the ruling welcome news for businesses and consumers, also urged refunds.

“Swift refunds of the impermissible tariffs will be meaningful for the more than 200,000 small business importers in this country and will help support stronger economic growth this year,” said Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer at the US Chamber of Commerce.

“Cough up!” says Newsom, calling for immediate refund checks after SCOTUS ruling

From CNN's Rebekah Riess

Following today’s SCOTUS ruling that President Donald Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called on the administration to “immediately” issue refund checks “with interest.”

The governor also noted that his state had been the first to challenge Trump’s tariffs, filing suit in April 2025 to stop the tariffs imposed without congressional approval.

Ford carrier strike group enters the Mediterranean Sea

From CNN's Haley Britzky and Farida Elsebai

The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has entered the Mediterranean Sea heading towards the Middle East to join a significant number of other US military assets in the region as President Donald Trump weighs his options for military actions against Iran.

Trump said a week ago he was sending the Ford to the region; up until then, the strike group had been in the Caribbean Sea for several months amid the administration’s campaign against Venezuela. The Ford group entered the Mediterranean, passing through the Strait of Gibraltar on Friday, according to open source ship tracking data and pictures posted to social media reviewed by CNN.

CNN reported Thursday that Trump is still weighing his options for strikes if he goes ahead with military action, ranging from more limited, target strikes to sustained operations that could last weeks. US forces have not yet been given a target list, a source familiar with the planning said.

The US has been engaged in a massive buildup of military assets in the Middle East, deploying fighter jets and refueling tankers, as well as flowing in dozens of cargo planes worth of equipment including additional air defense systems. The Ford also joins nearly a dozen US Navy ships, including the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group.

The Ford aircraft carrier is the world’s largest carrier. The strike group includes destroyers USS Winston Churchill, USS Bainbridge, and USS Mahan, as well as Carrier Air Wing 8 which is composed of four fighter squadrons, an electronic attack squadron, and more.

Tariff ruling offers relief for American businesses but muddies the economic outlook, experts say

From CNN's Alicia WallaceThe Supreme Court’s decision to restrict some of President Donald Trump’s tariff powers could end up being a gift to US consumers and businesses caught in the crossfire of higher import prices and skyrocketing uncertainty, economists said Friday.

“It will force a reset in tariff policy that is likely to lead to lower overall tariff rates and a more orderly imposition of future tariffs,” Heather Long, Navy Federal Credit Union’s chief economist, wrote Friday. “This will boost economic growth and provide some relief for American consumers. Smaller firms will be especially helped by this ruling.”

However, while Friday’s decision could force a more straightforward approach to enacting tariffs, it might only end up stoking already high uncertainty, cautioned Olu Sonola, head of US economics at Fitch Ratings.

Sonola estimated that the decision rolls back about 60% of the 2025 tariffs, totaling upward of $200 billion, and cutting the effective tariff rate by more than half, to 6%.

“However, the bigger macro takeaway is not just ‘lower tariffs,’ but ‘higher tariff-regime uncertainty,’” he wrote Friday.

“The odds that tariffs reappear in a revised form remain meaningful. Layer on potential tariff refunds, and you introduce a messy operational and legal overhang that amplifies economic uncertainty.”

Top congressional Democrats hail tariff ruling as a victory

From CNN's Morgan Rimmer

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling on the president’s ability to impose tariffs as a victory.

Schumer called the decision a “win for the wallets of every American consumer.”

Outspoken Republican critics of Trump’s tariffs praise Supreme Court ruling

From CNN's Morgan Rimmer and Lauren FoxGOP Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Don Bacon, who have both faced the president’s ire for criticizing his tariffs and backing legislation aimed at blocking them, praised the Supreme Court’s ruling striking them down.

Bacon was one of only a handful of House Republicans to rebuke President Donald Trump’s tariffs in a vote on the House floor last week.

“I feel vindicated as I’ve been saying this for the last 12 months. In the future, Congress should defend its authorities and not just rely on Supreme Court. Besides the Constitutional concerns I had on the Administration’s broad-based tariffs, I also do not think tariffs are smart economic policy. Broad-based tariffs are bad economics.”

Paul, who has been the sole GOP cosponsor of several bills in the Senate targeting the tariffs, said in a post on X, “The Supreme Court makes plain what should have been obvious: ‘The power to impose tariffs is ‘very clearly a branch of the power to tax,”” quoting from the ruling.

Former VP Pence praises SCOTUS ruling as "Victory for the American People"

From CNN's Rebekah Riess

Former Vice President Mike Pence praised today’s Supreme Court ruling that Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs are unconstitutional as “a Victory for the American People and a Win for the Separation of Powers enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.”

“American families and American businesses pay American tariffs — not foreign countries. With this decision, American families and businesses can breathe a sigh of relief,” the post continues. “With this historic decision, America can now return to the pursuit of Free Trade with Free Nations under the Constitution of the United States!”

Pence, since his split with Trump after the 2020 election, has often criticized Trump’s policies, including the president’s across-the-board tariffs.

Port of Los Angeles expecting surge of cargo after ruling on tariffs

From CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich

The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the country, is expecting a surge of cargo vessels in the coming weeks, after the Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump’s tariffs under International Emergency Economic Powers Act were illegal.

“This ruling may see a surge in cargo. American importers are looking at how quickly they can get cargo out of their Asia factories,” said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles.

By the numbers: Volume was down 12% at the Port of Los Angeles in January of this year compared to last year, but Seroka expects volume levels to increase given two-thirds of tariffs are no longer in effect. China’s factories are largely closed because of the Lunar New Year but are expected to open back up in a week or so, bringing in more job opportunities for dock workers in Los Angeles when cargo arrives.

Seroka says importers will be working fast to move merchandise that is imported into the US in large quantities: furniture, appliances, electronics, footwear, and toys.

White House sets dates for Trump’s China trip as tariff ruling looms over visit

From CNN's Kevin LiptakPresident Donald Trump plans to visit China from March 31 to April 2, a White House official said Friday.

The high-profile visit to Beijing, which Trump has been planning for months, will be complicated by Friday’s ruling at the Supreme Court deeming Trump’s sweeping tariffs illegal.

The US president had used tariffs as leverage in negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping and had been making progress in achieving a trade truce.

Now, without the emergency authorities he’d been relying upon, Trump’s relative power in negotiating with Xi could be diminished. Chinese officials have been closely monitoring the legal battle over tariffs in the United States.

The China tariffs went beyond attempts at reducing the US trade deficit. Trump also slapped duties on Beijing to pressure the country to reduce shipments of chemicals that are used to produce fentanyl.

SCOTUS decision unlikely to be a “win” for consumer wallets, economic policy expert says

From CNN's Rebekah Riess

Today’s Supreme Court ruling that President Donald Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal is unlikely to be a “win” for consumer wallets, former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy Natasha Sarin tells CNN.

While consumers have paid billions of dollars in the form of those tariffs, there is no guidance in the court’s opinion about what is supposed to happen with those refunds, Sarin says.

“Even if refunds are ultimately issued, they’re not going to be issued to consumers,” she says. “They’re going to be issued to firms and then you’re depending on firms ultimately passing those back to the consumer.”

Additionally, the Trump administration is likely to turn to other given authorities to effectuate the same type of tariff rates on the same countries, Sarin says.

“I think there’s a lot of volatility and uncertainty that make me suspicious that consumers are going to see real gains from this decision in the short run,” she added.

How Trump could still keep imposing tariffs

Analysis from CNN's Aaron BlakeIt’s important to note that this isn’t the end of the tariffs drama.

Indeed, shortly after the Supreme Court decision landed, Trump signaled he had a backup plan, CNN reported.

Precisely what that backup plan is, we don’t know. But the court only struck down one method for imposing tariffs — Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — and there are others he could try.

There are other provisions of the Trade Act of 1974, the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and the Tariff Act of 1930 that he could try. He already used some of these in his first administration.

Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, for example, allows tariffs of up to 15% for up to 150 days under certain circumstances. And it can be used quickly.

Another possibility is Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, commonly known as “Smoot-Hawley.” It allows tariffs of up to 50% for five months on a country that “discriminates” against US commerce. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has cited this as a possible backup.

But these could at least limit Trump. Both would limit the amount of time (unless Congress extended them, which is no sure thing), and the first option would force Trump to reduce many of his global tariffs to 15%. There are questions about how rapidly the second option could be deployed.

It’s also not clear whether there will be the same political appetite to keep trying, especially given we’re now in an election year. We could see Republicans suddenly signal this is a moment to move on from this gambit and urge Trump to do so.

The court may have done the GOP and Trump a favor

Analysis from CNN's Aaron Blake It was fortuitous that the Supreme Court decision landed the same morning we got an underwhelming economic report, showing just a 1.4% annualized GDP growth in the fourth quarter.

That’s because the court arguably saved Trump from himself — and did a lot of tariff-skeptical Republicans a giant favor.

The tariffs might not have proven the economic albatross that some predicted — at least not yet. But there were plenty of signs they hampered an economy proving to be the GOP’s biggest problem in the 2026 midterm elections.

How much of those economic woes owe to Trump’s tariffs is debatable. It’s also not clear that the tariffs going away will rapidly make things better. (And Trump can, quite notably, try other methods of imposing tariffs.)

But at least for now, the court has removed a significant variable in an equation that wasn’t working for Trump and the GOP.

The political problem with his tariffs effort was that, to the extent it was going to work, it was always going to take time. It’s a process to move manufacturing back on to US shores. But the GOP’s political problems are here and now.

Republicans have spent the last year largely holding their noses as Trump imposed massive taxes on imports that ran afoul of longstanding GOP free-trade orthodoxy.

But starting last May, the ones who disliked these tariffs had reason to believe the courts might do the dirty work for them. That’s when the little-known US Court of International Trade first struck down Trump’s tariffs.

That bet ultimately paid off. Whether it did so early enough to save the GOP in 2026 is another matter.

Why the tariffs case was an easy "no" decision for the Supreme Court

From CNN’s Joan Biskupic and Rebekah Riess The Supreme Court has ruled that Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal, emphasizing that presidential powers must be clearly granted by Congress and mirroring prior rulings on Biden policies.

“It was the biggest showdown between this (Chief Justice John Roberts)-controlled court and President Trump. And finally, they said no,” according to CNN’s Chief Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic. “This was an easy one for the Supreme Court to say no on.”

The decision, delivered in 21 pages after a 20‑minute hearing, reflected a broader trend of limiting executive authority.

“He, the Chief Justice, tried to really emphasize that, ‘Look, we ruled in a certain way when President Biden was in, and we’re going to rule the same way here,’” Biskupic explained. “If the president wants to assume some authority in a congressional law, that the law must state clearly that he has this authority.”

Wall Street breathes sigh of relief over tariffs, but weighs future uncertainty

From CNN's John Towfighi

US stocks were higher Friday morning after the Supreme Court issued a ruling striking down the sweeping tariffs President Donald Trump implemented via an emergency powers law.

The Dow was up 92 points, or 0.2%. The broader S&P 500 rose 0.6%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.06%.

Treasury yields, which rise when bonds fall, ticked higher. The US dollar index fell 0.2%.

“We are not surprised by Friday’s relatively muted broader stock market reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, as the market knew for some time that the Supreme Court would eventually weigh in on the legality of the tariffs,” Glen Smith, CIO at GDS Wealth Management, said in a note.

Gold, a haven amid uncertainty, was up 1.3% but off its session high before the 10 a.m. ET ruling.

Wall Street is digesting the implications of the ruling for potential tariffs refunds and the impact on funds in the government’s coffers — as well as lingering uncertainty about whether Trump might try to implement tariffs via different legal authority.

The SCOTUS ruling offered some certainty for markets, lifting stocks, but traders are also weighing potential uncertainty about future tariffs, exemplified by gold rising more than stocks.

Few in GOP publicly criticized Trump’s tariffs. Democrats will use that in the midterms

From CNN's Sarah Ferris

Democratic campaign operatives say they will hold congressional Republicans accountable for Donald Trump’s tariffs, even after the Supreme Court dealt the president a major loss by striking them down.

And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wrote in a statement that the tariffs have “wreaked havoc” across industries and have worsened the affordability crisis.

“Americans deserve a Congress that will put people before politics - which means no longer bending the knee to an out-of-touch President and rolling back these reckless tariffs - which will happen when Democrats re-take the House majority in November.”

In Congress, few Republicans were willing to publicly criticize Trump’s tariff regime — even if privately, many had issues with the higher costs people were facing back home.

Democrats recently forced a floor vote in the House to block Trump’s tariffs on Canada, serving as a referendum on the idea. Only six Republicans backed the Democratic effort, though one lawmaker, Rep. Don Bacon, told CNN that dozens more opposed the tariffs but chose not to vote against the president to avoid drawing his ire.

That means dozens of vulnerable Republicans voted to support the president’s tariffs — a vote that will be featured in campaign ads through November.

Trump's economic agenda is having a miserable Friday

From CNN's David GoldmanThe Supreme Court’s ruling that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to impose tariffs via emergency powers dealt a blow to his administration’s economic agenda.

The ruling won’t end Trump’s use of tariffs, a method he views as crucial to building up American manufacturing and raising revenue to fund economy-boosting programs. But it will limit the president’s tariff-wielding powers, forcing him to switch to other, less sweeping authorities to levy import taxes.

The ruling came just over an hour after two key economic reports showed the US economy is slowing down and inflation is speeding up.

US gross domestic product grew just 2.2% in 2025, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. That was the worst performance since the pandemic upended the economy in 2020. The report showed economic growth remains largely solid, and the temporary effects of the government shutdown were responsible for a good chunk of the bad news. But it also showed concerning longer-term trends: Consumer spending is slowing down, as are paychecks — the fundamental support structures for the economy.

A separate report from the BEA also showed inflation is rising again and remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. It’s not out of control like it was during the 2022 inflation crisis, but high prices underpin many of the affordability concerns that pose a significant political concern for Trump and Republicans ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

Supreme Court's tariff rejection sets up an awkward State of the Union meeting

From CNN's Adam CancrynWhen President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday, he’ll likely do so in front of the six Supreme Court justices who just struck down his favorite economic policy.

It has all the makings of a very awkward situation.

Trump had already raged for months at the Supreme Court over its deliberations on his tariffs, complaining about the possibility that they could be invalidated and — most recently — that the court was taking so long to render its decision.

The Friday morning ruling is only likely to deepen his apathy for the court — and in particular, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, whom he nominated just years ago.

Now, the State of the Union will grant him perhaps the year’s highest-profile platform to air his grievances at the court’s move to invalidate the tool that he’s used to drive both his domestic and foreign policy priorities.

“My favorite word in the whole dictionary is tariff,” Trump joked on Thursday, as he extolled the benefits of his trade policy.

On Friday, he chose a different word to describe the justices’ ruling against him, according to two people familiar with his remarks: “Disgrace.”

CNN Supreme Court analyst calls tariff ruling "a major loss for Trump"

From CNN analyst Steve VladeckSteve Vladeck, CNN’s Supreme Court analyst, said today’s tariff decision shows the court is willing to oppose Trump administration on big issues.

“Even though the Supreme Court has already ruled in dozens of cases involving the second Trump administration, those all involved emergency applications; this was the first Trump-related case to which the Court gave full review — and it’s an overwhelming loss for Trump on both the specific legal question and the more general ability to broadly use statutes like IEEPA,” said Vladeck, who is also a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

Supreme Court spiked tariffs. What comes next?

From CNN's Elisabeth BuchwaldIn a 6-3 decision released today, the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s most sweeping tariffs. But this won’t mean the end of tariffs, rather, it will likely mark the pilot episode of season two, as Trump hinted on Friday that he has a backup plan in mind.

The president has plenty of other tariff levers immediately at his disposal, albeit they carry restrictions. But his administration could explore more creative non-tariff measures aimed at restricting imports, like limiting import licensing agreements.

As for potential refunds, it’s entirely unclear if businesses will be eligible or how that process will be conducted. Ahead of Friday’s decision, several large corporations including Costco already filed lawsuits suing the US government to potentially increase their odds at getting a refund.