Trump: New tariffs same as the ones Supreme Court struck down

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said new U.S. tariffs are functionally the same as the ones the Supreme Court struck down as illegal earlier this year.

“It’s a shame that I have to go a harder way for the tariffs because the Supreme Court, in a very close decision, you know, ruled against me,” Trump said in a Fox News interview.

“Now, I have other ways of doing the same thing, but it’s a more cumbersome, you know, way of doing it,” he said.

Trump’s comments on tariffs came four days after a federal lawsuit accused his administration of using different statutes as a pretext to resurrect the global tariff regime that failed in the courts.

“Changing the statute doesn’t change the law — and changing the stated rationale doesn’t make an unlawful tariff lawful,” Sara Albrecht, chairman and CEO of Liberty Justice Center, the legal nonprofit behind the lawsuit, said of Trump’s latest remarks.

“This statement bolsters our argument,” Albrecht told CNBC in an emailed statement. “The president’s own words indicate that these tariffs are simply another, more cumbersome way of achieving the same result after the Supreme Court ruled against him.”

Trump also told Fox that he would rather the U.S. leave its trilateral trade deal with Canada and Mexico than renegotiate it.

“I don’t care. I mean, I don’t really want to. I’d rather be independent,” Trump said when asked if he was still looking to update the deal known as USMCA, which the U.S. this month decided not to renew.

“Here’s the thing: Mexico and Canada need us. We don’t need them. The deal is important for them. It’s not important for us,” he said.

The Canadian and Mexican embassies in the U.S. did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Trump’s comment.

The president’s trade remarks came as his administration’s use of tariffs has ramped back up in recent weeks.

The Trump administration on Friday imposed tariffs between 10% and 12.5% on goods from more than 80 countries, on the grounds that those trade partners failed to effectively prohibit the use of forced labor.

Those duties, brought under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, came into effect just as Trump’s worldwide 10% tariff hit its 150-day time limit and expired.

Trump announced that temporary tariff on Feb. 20, the same day the Supreme Court struck down his prior “liberation day” duties, which set a 10% near-global “reciprocal” baseline tariff and saddled dozens of countries with higher individualized rates.

All three of those tariff policies were brought using different statutory authorities. The lawsuit filed Friday argues that Trump’s newest tariffs, while ostensibly aimed at addressing forced labor practices, are “designed to preserve substantially the same broad tariff regime that this Court and the Supreme Court have held Congress did not authorize.”

A senior administration official, when asked in a call with reporters Thursday if the focus on forced labor is an excuse to reimpose “liberation day,” claimed that Trump has prioritized the issue “for many years.”

The official added that the timing of new tariffs — coming into force directly as the temporary ones lapsed — was chosen “to avoid complexity” and not intended as a replacement.

Trump in Tuesday’s interview also dismissed fears that his tariffs, which are taxes on imported goods, could hurt the economy — especially as Americans’ cost-of-living concerns become a central issue of the upcoming midterm elections.

“The tariffs have made this country a fortune,” Trump said, while claiming that his use of them has helped stopped numerous wars. “These tariffs — it’s the greatest thing,” he said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Trump’s remarks.