After the Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s tariffs, he detonated. He targeted justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, fuming that the ruling was an “embarrassment to their families.” He doubled down on the idea that he has unilateral tariff power. He tacitly threatened to investigate the high court for foreign influences. He called the ruling a “disgrace to our nation.” Yet this is backfiring: It prompted GOP Representative Don Bacon to declare that this might prompt more GOP votes to constrain him, remarking that Trump “didn’t do himself any favors.” Indeed, after we recorded this episode, Senator Mitch McConnell pointedly noted that Congress is “not an inconvenience to avoid,” suggesting more Congressional action ahead, and other Republicans celebrated the ruling. Trump then grew angry over the GOP betrayal. We talked to legal scholar Matthew Seligman, a lawyer for some of the businesses looking for tariff refunds. He explains why the ruling was such a major rebuke, why Trump’s efforts to revive the tariffs might encounter turbulence, and how his impotent fury—and the GOP response to it—undermine his political mystique in a deeper sense. Listen to this episode here.

PODCAST

Trump’s Rage at SCOTUS Explodes—then Backfires as GOPers Turn on Him

As Trump’s fury at the Supreme Court over his loss on tariffs brings GOP pushback, a legal expert explains how he’ll try to revive the levies—and how the whole saga undermines the myth of Trump.

Peter W. Stevenson/The Washington Post via Getty Images