Economist Paul Krugman at FIDES 2023 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 25, 2023 (A.PAES/Shutterstock.com)
President Donald Trump suffered a major defeat when the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling handed down on Friday, February 20 in the case Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, ruled that most of his tariffs are illegal. Yet Trump is doubling down on his trade policy, attacking the six justices who comprised the majority as a "disgrace" and looking for new ways to push tariffs.
In a biting column posted on his Substack page on February 24, liberal economist Paul Krugman argues that Trump's angry reaction to the High Court decision underscores his inability to accept defeat gracefully — and that Trump will keep looking for ways to pursue "zombie tariffs" despite a "stinging rebuke" in Learning Resources.
"Never one to accept limitations on his power," Krugman explains, "Trump rushed to impose new tariffs using an obscure clause: Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act. Section 122 tariffs have a 150-day limit, at which point they expire. So Trump officials are now claiming that they'll find ways to reconstruct the tariffs using other legal loopholes before the expiration date is reached. I don't know how well this strategy will actually work. To the extent that it does work, we will be in the grip of zombie tariffs — tariffs that should be dead, because they were clearly imposed illegally, but that somehow keep shambling along."
The former New York Times columnist adds, "Why this desperate attempt to keep tariffs high? A MAGA loyalist would say it's to preserve what those illegal tariffs have accomplished. But even before they were struck down, the tariffs had achieved none of their stated goals."
Although Trump claimed that his tariffs would eliminate the United States' trade deficit, Krugman notes, the "U.S. trade deficit for all of 2025 was about the same as it was in 2024."
"Trump also claimed that his tariffs would revive American manufacturing," Krugman observes. "In fact, manufacturing employment has declined since Liberation Day…. Trump likes to boast about the immense revenue generated by the tariffs. And they did indeed bring in some money — tariffs are taxes, and taxes yield revenue. But they aren't the gusher of revenue that Trump claims…. Trump will have lost a lot of power even if he manages to avoid a big reduction in average tariff rates. So why persist?"
Krugman continues, "The obvious answer is that Trump can’t bring himself to acknowledge defeat. His tariff strategy is, by any reasonable standard, dead, and the tariffs should be dead too. But they won't stay dead; they just keep shambling along."
