Trump Tariffs 2 0 The New 15 Tax on You

In today's video, I want to tell you about the current situation regarding President Trump's tariffs. So they're confusing. I'm going to simplify it for you. And you're going to want to hear this because it's probably not what you think. And let me begin with a quick recap. So this is not going to take a long time. On Friday, February 20th, the Supreme Court struck down the majority of President Trump's tariffs. Essentially, they are unconstitutional, they're illegal, and now they no longer apply. So President Trump justified his tariffs by using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the IEEPA. So this was about 70% of the tariffs that he imposed. President Trump was arguing the United States of America was under a foreign threat, which allowed him to justly use the IEEPA. And he said that the foreign threats was the influx of foreign drugs and trade deficits, which means that Americans are importing more than were exporting. So he said that this is a public health crisis regarding the drugs and that the trade deficit was hollowing out the American manufacturing sector, affecting critical supply chains. And the Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 against President Trump. The decision was that the IEEPA does not authorize President Trump to impose tariffs. And the ruling proceeded to say, In IEEPA's half century of existence, no president has invoked the statute to impose any tariffs, let alone tariffs of this magnitude and scope. They also said that there's a lack of historical precedence and the tariffs extend beyond the president's legitimate reach. Now, I just want to tell you about the situation before we proceed to talk about how President Trump responded and the new tariffs. But listen, ultimately, the tariffs under the IEEPA were illegal and there's to be refunds handed out. Justice Kavanaugh wrote that the United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on the costs to consumers. So I just want you to make no mistake, like I want this to be crystal clear that you and I will not be receiving the tariff refunds. It's the big corporations that, you know, it's them that's going to be receiving the refunds, when in reality, that's money that was coming from you and me. So essentially, I don't know how else to put this, like they ripped us off. This was robbery in plain sight. Currently, about 2,000 companies have lawsuits suing for their tariff refunds. It's going to be about $140 billion and it's in all industries. And you can take a look at the list, Prada, Staples, J.Crew, Dole Fresh Fruit Company, GoPro, Barnes and Nobles, Goodyear Tire, Costco, Toyota, Revlon, etc. 2,000 big corporations and businesses. You know, the government made us subsidize them, the rich got richer, even if it wasn't intentional. I mean, that's what happened, isn't it? You know, thanks a lot. Now, I just want to say, what did I tell you right after the Supreme Court decision was released? I said, okay, first of all, President Trump stayed silent, which was uncharacteristic of him. And I told you explicitly before he reacted, before he said anything, I said that he's not going to give up on the tariffs and that he's going to try to use a different alternative to keep on tariffing. But I told you that they chose, like the administration chose the IEP excuse because that was the one with the strongest case and that he would try an alternative excuse, but it's going to be more flimsy. Like, did I not? Okay, so let's see how that played out. First, President Trump expressed himself, of course. He wrote, those members of the Supreme Court who voted against our very acceptable and proper methods of tariffs should be ashamed of themselves. And then President Trump wrote, it is my great honor to have just signed a global 10% tariff on all countries, which will be effective almost immediately. Okay, so here's what's going on. The tariffs under the IEPA are illegal and he can't do them anymore, but he's not giving up. So the IEPA tariffs are gone, but they're immediately being replaced by new tariffs. Therefore, the tariffs are not gone. Of course, some of the tariff rates on certain countries or products are going to be different, but overall, the tariffs are still going to be here. And President Trump explains the situation here. Today, I will sign an order to impose a 10% global tariff under section 122 over and above our normal tariffs. Okay, so the normal tariffs that he's referring to, these were the tariffs that were not struck down by the Supreme Court. These are the ones that were outside the IEPA. But later, President Trump went on to clarify that certain tariffs are not going to stack according to their statement on February 20th. And President Trump said that we are also initiating several section 301 and other investigations. So this is the ability to tariff under another reason, which is going to be very important. And I'm going to explain that in a minute. And then shortly after, President Trump decided to raise this new tariff from 10% to 15%. Okay, so this new tariff, which is now in play is a global 15% tariff. And here's what we know. President Trump cannot tariff under the IEPA. So now he's going to go with section 122 of 1974 Trade Act. Okay, section 122 allows the President to address large and serious balance of payments deficits with tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days. Okay, so President Trump is arguing that the trade deficits qualifies for a balance of payments deficits. So you have to understand that a trade deficit is not the same thing as a payments deficit. And unlike the IEPA, section 122 says that tariffs under this rule cannot be country specific. So that's why he has to apply a tariff like a global tariff against all, basically all imports. So it's just like a blanket tariff. Okay, so President Trump cannot tariff under the IEPA, right? So he's going to go with plan B, section 122. However, trade experts are saying that this is going to turn out to be unconstitutional as well. They're saying that a balance of payments deficit is not the same thing as a trade deficit. So you cannot have a balance of payments deficit if you have a flexible exchange rate, which is how the U.S. operates. And I just want to explain to you the situation like this. This is probably the easiest way to do it. Before, people in other countries could exchange their U.S. dollars for gold. It was a fixed system. And other countries were rushing to turn in their dollars for gold and they were draining our vaults. But right now, we don't have a fixed system and the dollar is not pegged to anything. It's a fiat currency with the flexible exchange rates. So you can have a trade deficit, but you can't have a payments deficit in that type of situation. Essentially, this section of the 1974 Trade Act, which took years to draft up, was rendered obsolete when Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1971. And there is no payments deficit because foreign countries, they take their U.S. dollars and they reinvest it back into the U.S. such as the U.S. treasury market, the U.S. stock markets, and U.S. real estate. Okay, so what does all this mean? Most likely, these new 15% tariffs are going to be ruled illegal. And the same thing's going to happen. You and me, we're going to continue to get taxed an extra 15%. And the legal system, they're going to rule it illegal. And then the corporations are going to get their refunds, which is really our money. But this whole process may take another one year. But if President Trump knows that tariffs under Section 122 will fail in a matter of time, then why is he doing this anyways? And the answer is, it's because he's using these new 15% tariffs to buy time. That's the truth. It's because the end goal is that he wants to use Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Okay, so he can legally impose tariffs under Section 301 if he investigates other countries, like their trade practices, and they conclude that their trade practices are discriminatory and unfair. And honestly, I'll tell you that in a lot of cases, such as if you look at China, they would qualify as unfair trade practices, like their dumping practices. So this is when a country intentionally floods a huge supply of any product into the U.S. in order to drive down prices in an attempt to wipe out U.S. businesses, U.S. producers. And then, okay, if they do that, they flood our markets with cheap products, then, okay, the U.S. producers, they're going to go bankrupt. And after the U.S. producers are bankrupt, then the Chinese with their products, they're going to raise their prices here in the U.S., and then there's not going to be anything that we can do about it because our U.S. producers all went out of business. So when they're dumping their product into our country, they're usually doing this at a loss, but they're playing the long game. So in many cases, tariffs would be legal under Section 301. However, President Trump needs to launch investigations and studies, and that's going to take many months. And he doesn't want to wait. So he's using Section 122 right now to continue tariffing, and it's basically bridging the gap until the 301 investigations are complete. So he's buying time with Section 122. Listen, I just want to say that the first tariff video that I made, this was probably 10, 11 months ago. And I said that what President Trump was doing was illegal. And it took me one year to be proven correct. And I'm telling you right now that these tariffs under Section 122, they're going to be illegal. And it might take another year for me to be proven correct. And I just want to say that these tariffs, they're not going to fix our trade deficit. They're not going to fix our budget. What happened to that argument? Oh, the tariffs, they're going to replace the income tax. Well, yeah, how did that work out? Like, did you do your tax return this year? Like, how's that going? Anyways, the tariffs, they're just tax. That's all that it is. And they're taxing us. And now it's crazy because the corporations, they're getting our money. Like, it goes directly to them, essentially. Anyways, please subscribe. Thank you for the support. And I wish you a very nice day. Take care.