'Insecure' Trump 'could be saved by his own Supreme Court' as tariffs threaten economy: expert

Donald Trump has tried to frame his tariffs as a matter of "national security" as the Supreme Court weighs his authority to implement them, but according to one economic policy expert, these arguments show that the president is "insecure" about his "weak" argument.

On Tuesday, Trump took to his Truth Social account to post another vigorous defense of his sweeping tariff policies, claiming this time that without them, the US would be "financially defenseless."

"The biggest threat in history to United States National Security would be a negative decision on Tariffs by the U.S. Supreme Court," Trump posted. "We would be financially defenseless. Now Europe is going to Tariffs [sic] against China, as they already do against others. We would not be allowed to do what others already do!"

During an appearance on MS NOW, however, Henrietta Treyz, a veteran economic policy analyst and cofounder of Veda Partners, deflated Trump's latest argument for his tariffs and claimed his defensiveness showed the "weak" position he is in before the Supreme Court.

"I think it shows you how insecure the president is in his own use of the authority, which plainly runs afoul of the Constitution," Treyz said. "You know, we fought the Revolutionary War so that we put we could put the power to tax in the hands of Congress, not into the hands of a king. So in this case, what's happening is the president is really showing his hand about how weak the argument he has presented at the Supreme Court really is."

Speaking further about the Supreme Court case, Treyz suggested that a ruling against Trump's tariffs would, counter to his claims, be good for the US economy and possibly help turn voters around on his presidency, calling it a potential "favor" from the Court.

"I think what would be beneficial for the U.S.consumer is if the Supreme Court actually did the president a favor and took the tariffs off and said, you don't have the authority to do this immediately, it would be a $1,800 per household benefit. That's how much the tariffs are costing the average American household every single year. So if the Supreme Court comes in and says, 'hey, you don't have this authority,' that could immediately give the president a boost, and he could be saved by his own Supreme Court, which, of course, is heavily influenced by the conservative Justices. So we're expecting that decision to come as early as tomorrow. And it could really be a game changer for both the president, the Republican narrative going into 2026 and the consumers."

Despite the potential benefits Treyz suggested, Trump officials have recently claimed that there might be other ways of enforcing tariffs should the Supreme Court rule against the method the president is currently using. The Court is considering Trump's claim that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) gives him broad authority to create new tariffs, despite Congress holding the power to implement new taxes. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week suggested that Sections 122, 301 and 232 of the 1962 Trade Act give Trump tariff authorities for varying timeframes and for varying cases, and could be used to "recreate the exact tariff structure" currently in place.