A panel of federal judges ruled Thursday that US President Donald Trump received 10% FEES most imports are illegal, another major legal blow to the centerpiece of the Republican president’s economic agenda — which has failed to produce the manufacturing boom he repeatedly promised on the campaign trail.
International Court Trade (CIT) is found in a 2-to-1 in power that Trump broke the law when he unilaterally approved 10% import tariffs following a February ruling by US Supreme Courtwhich struck down tariffs the president imposed using emergency powers. But the decision of the CIT, which The Trump administration is expected to appeal, only stopped the collection of fees from some of the plaintiffs in the case — including a pair of businesses and Washington the state – thus limiting the immediate impact of the decision.
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), a member of the House Commerce Subcommittee, welcomed the new ruling in a statement, saying “Trump must uphold the law by ending his illegal tax on the American people and getting families and small businesses the refunds they are owed.”
“The Supreme Court already reprimanded the president’s costly fees, but Donald Trump sees our Constitution as a simple suggestion to follow, not the law of the land,” Larson said. “As families are squeezed by high grocery bills and high gas prices, his latest round of tariffs is just adding salt to the wound. The average family has already been robbed of nearly $2,000 by this administration and should not have to pay a penny more.”
The decision came as a new analysis of trade and manufacturing data from the first quarter of 2026 found that “the president’s actions on trade have not lived up to his promises to quickly balance trade and revive American manufacturing.” Since Trump’s return to The White House Last year, US manufacturing employment fell by 82,000 jobs. according to the Rethink Trade program at the American Economic Freedoms Project.
Additionally, the country’s trade deficit was higher during the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2024, Rethink Trade found.
“Data from the first quarter of 2026 show that President Trump’s promises to prioritize rapidly reducing the trade deficit and creating more US manufacturing jobs are being undermined by his chaotic and often misguided use of tariffs and misuse of leverage to ask other countries to back down. Big Tech antitrust and other policies instead of the mercantilist abuses that drive the trade deficit,” said Lori Wallach, director of Rethink Trade.
