A federal trade court struck down Trump's 10% across-the-board tariffs Thursday. Two companies and Washington state get relief. The other 330 million of us don't.
Here's what the court did not do. Did not propose a different trade strategy. Did not address the $166 billion in duties already collected under the prior tariff package. Did not explain how you rebuild a manufacturing base without leverage. Three unelected judges decided the legal theory was wrong, said illegal, and walked out of the room. Meanwhile, US manufacturing employment has dropped 82,000 jobs since Trump took office — and the people cheering this ruling have never lost a single one of them.
Rep. John Larson went on camera to say the administration took "nearly $2,000" from the average household. He didn't mention what NAFTA took. What the WTO took. What thirty years of managed decline took from places like Zanesville while Washington called it free trade. The court gave Basic Fun! and Burlap & Barrel their injunction. Good for them. Nobody gave the parts plant on the east side of town its injunction in 2003. That's not a legal argument. That's just what happened.