Trump uses lowercase to insult 'supreme court,' vows to impose new tariffs

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Feb 23, 2026

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President Donald Trump Monday insulted the “supreme court” by refusing to capitalize the name of the nation’s top court and vowed to resume his global trade war after the justices struck down most of the tariffs he imposed in a politically damaging ruling.

Even as Trump claimed the conservative Supreme Court’s ruling actually boosted him, he derided the majority justices as “incompetent” and worse for their 6-3 ruling against his signature economic policy.

“The supreme court (will be using lower case letters for a while based on a complete lack of respect!) of the United States accidentally and unwittingly gave me, as President of the United States, far more powers and strength than I had prior to their ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive ruling,” Trump wrote on his social media site.

“Our incompetent supreme court did a great job for the wrong people, and for that they should be ashamed of themselves,” he added.

After the ruling, Trump has vowed to impose a new 15% tariff on all imported goods, citing a different law than the one he previously relied on. He claimed the Supreme Court’s ruling gives him the right to do so, though legal experts dispute that claim and predict the new tariffs will attract fresh legal attacks.

Even if Trump succeeds in doing an end-run around the court, he faces potentially huge political problems stemming from his insistence on pushing ahead with tariffs, which polls say are extremely unpopular with the American public.

He will take his case directly to the American people Tuesday when he delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, whom Trump has personally attacked, and several of the other justices are expected to attend, raising the possibility of an uncomfortable confrontation.

Trump also predicted the Supremes would rule against him over his executive order abolishing birthright citizenship for all children born on U.S. soil.

That decision, which would upend more than a century of legal tradition if Trump prevails, could come as soon as Tuesday when the court is set to release one or more new decisions.

“The next thing you know they will rule in favor of China and others, who are making an absolute fortune on birthright citizenship,” Trump said, suggesting that foreigners take advantage of the bedrock constitutional principle to improperly gain U.S. citizenship for their children. “This supreme court will find a way to come to the wrong conclusion.”

The court’s Friday decision struck down tariffs Trump had imposed on nearly every country using an emergency powers law.

He quickly signed an executive order enabling him to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on imports from around the world. Over the weekend, he raised that to the maximum allowable 15%.

But those tariffs are limited to 150 days unless extended by congressional action, which is extremely unlikely because Democrats could block any such measure in the Senate.

Other legal pathways to impose tariffs are limited in scope and require the backing of investigations into supposed improper trade practices by trading partners, making them much less amenable to Trump’s preferred method of using the levies to bully geopolitical rivals and allies alike into making concessions.