Trump administration Solicitor General D. John Sauer faced pointed and at times skeptical questioning from both conservative and liberal justices during Wednesday’s Supreme Court oral arguments over President Donald Trump’s asserted power to impose sweeping tariffs by declaring a national emergency.

The tariffs, unilaterally imposed on approximately 100 countries, have dramatically altered not only national commerce, but worldwide commerce. Some legal experts point to the U.S. Constitution to argue that Trump has overstepped and usurped Congress’ Article I powers.

“Sharp, skeptical questioning on Trump’s tariffs from at least two conservative justices so far: Roberts and Barrett,” observed All Rise News Editor-in-Chief Adam Klasfeld, referring to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

READ MORE: ‘Kamikaze Pilots’: Trump Says Democrats Will ‘Take Down the Country’ After Big Wins

“The Supreme Court is not friendly to the President today,” noted constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor took broad issue with Sauer’s assertions, telling him, “You say tariffs are not taxes, but that’s exactly what they are.”

At another point, Justice Sotomayor rebuked Sauer, who had been asked a question by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and told him to just answer Barrett’s question.

Sauer insisted that the intent of President Trump’s tariffs was not to raise revenue, despite countless times Trump and his administration having bragged about the “billions” of dollars (or more) that they are bringing in.

The New York Times summed up a critical lynchpin for Wednesday’s hearing:

“An expected point of contention is whether Mr. Trump’s tariff actions run afoul of the so-called major questions doctrine. It is a principle that boils down to: If Congress wants to give the president power to take major economic action, it will say so plainly.”

Justice Sotomayor, challenging Sauer’s arguments, said: “So [President] Biden could have declared a national emergency on global warming, and then gotten his student [loan] forgiveness to not be a ‘major questions doctrine’?”

“That’s all Biden would have had to do with any of his programs?”

Sauer disagreed on student loan forgiveness but did not answer the climate change question.

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Hunger Caucus Head Slams GOP for ‘Starving Children’ by ‘Weaponizing’ SNAP

Justice Sotomayor also pointed to that doctrine in her early line of questioning.

“I don’t understand this argument,” she told Sauer. “That it’s equivalent, or that foreign powers, or even an emergency, can do away with the major questions doctrine. Didn’t we in the Biden case recently say an emergency can’t make clear what’s ambiguous?”

NBC News reported that “Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to be skeptical about the argument that the government is using to push for Trump’s tariffs.”

“Roberts said ‘the imposition of taxes on Americans’ has always ‘been the core power of Congress.'”

“Roberts also said the major questions doctrine ‘might be directly applicable.'”

“‘The statute doesn’t use the word tariff,’ Roberts said.”

Serving up a cautionary reminder, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, an MSNBC legal analyst, noted: “Don’t forget that it was Sauer, now the Solicitor General, who persuaded a conservative majority of the Court that a president could not be prosecuted for crimes committed while in office, even if he ordered Seal Team 6 to take out a political rival.”

READ MORE: White House Backpedals on Trump’s SNAP Refusal — and Blames Dems for Delay

Image via Reuters 

Appearing unmoved by voters’ message and showing no sign of changing course, President Donald Trump brushed off Democrats’ sweeping wins in Tuesday’s elections during a Wednesday White House breakfast for Republican senators, where he compared Democrats to World War II Japanese suicide bombers.

“I heard it after ‘Kings,’ you know, they said I was a king, and I heard it after ‘Kings,'” he said, referring to last month’s highly attended nationwide “No Kings” rallies and protests. “I heard it after a couple of other moments in time. And I said, ‘No, I don’t believe so.’ And now I heard it after the election. Don’t believe so.”

“I think they will, I think they’re kamikaze pilots,” Trump continued. “I just got back from Japan. I talked about the kamikaze pilots. I think these guys are kamikazes. They’ll take down the country if they have to.”

READ MORE: ‘Sick’: Hunger Caucus Head Slams GOP for ‘Starving Children’ by ‘Weaponizing’ SNAP

The President, his tone weary, repeated his pre-election call to end the Senate filibuster.

“It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster,” Trump told the Republican senators, who did not appear to react. “The only way you can do it.”

“And if you don’t terminate the filibuster, you’ll be in bad shape,” he warned, appearing concerned about the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election.

“We won’t pass any legislation. There’ll be no legislation passed for three and a quarter — we have three and a quarter years, so that’s a long time.”

The President urged Republicans, who hold majorities in both the House and the Senate to “do our own bills. We should get out, we should do our own bills.”

“Should open up” the country, he said, of ending the shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history. “We should start tonight with ‘the country’s open. Congratulations.’ Then we should pass voter ID. We should pass no mail-in voting. We should pass all the things that we wanted to pass, make our elections secure and safe, because California is a disaster. Many of the states are disasters.”

“But can you imagine,” he asked, “when they vote almost unanimously against voter ID?” he said of the Democrats.

“All we want is voter ID. You go to a grocery store, you have to give ID. You go to a gas station, you give ID,” he said, incorrectly.

READ MORE: White House Backpedals on Trump’s SNAP Refusal — and Blames Dems for Delay

“But for voting, they want no voter IDs. So, for one reason, because they cheat. We would pass that in 15 minutes. If you don’t get it, you’ll never pass that. You’ll never talk about mail-in ballots. Mail-in ballots make it automatically corrupt,” he alleged, a statement contradicted by numerous studies showing minimal fraud.

Trump again stressed the importance of killing the filibuster, telling Republicans that Democrats are going to “pack” the Supreme Court, “they’re going to make D.C. a state and they’re gonna make Puerto Rico a state. So now they pick up two states, they pick up four senators.”

“They’re gonna pick up electoral votes. It’s gonna be a very, very bad situation.”

But, he said, “if we do what I’m saying,” Democrats will “most likely never obtain power.”

Trump did acknowledge that the federal government shutdown was a factor in Tuesday’s elections — while claiming because he wasn’t on the ballot, Republicans lost.

“I thought we’d have a discussion after the press leaves about what last night represented,” he said. “And what we should do about it, and also about the shutdown, how that relates to last night. I think if you read the pollsters, the shutdown was a big factor, negative for the Republicans. And that was a big factor, and they say that I wasn’t on the ballot, was the biggest factor. But I don’t know about that, but I was honored that they said that.”

Trump on Democrats: “I think they’re kamikaze pilots. I just got back from Japan, I talked about the kamikaze pilots. I think these guys are kamikaze. They’ll take down the country if they have to.” pic.twitter.com/EE2T1xSWin

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 5, 2025

READ MORE: Johnson Urges SNAP Recipients to Come ‘Home’ to Republican Party

A prominent House Democrat erupted in anger at President Donald Trump and Republicans for “weaponizing” the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after Trump threatened to withhold funds in defiance of federal court orders. Hours later, the White House moved to walk back the president’s remarks.

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the Ranking Member of the powerful Rules Committee and co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, denounced the Republican decision to “withhold nutrition assistance,” calling it “disgusting,” “immoral,” and “wrong.” He also condemned the Trump administration as “cruel” and “heartless.”

“Donald Trump talks about ‘America first,'” McGovern said. “What about the 16 million American children who rely on SNAP? Or the eight million American seniors who are worried sick about where their next meal comes from? Or the one million American veterans who have to choose between health care and staying fed?”

READ MORE: White House Backpedals on Trump’s SNAP Refusal — and Blames Dems for Delay

McGovern also condemned Republicans for telling “everyday Americans that you have to pick between food and healthcare. I mean, who the h– comes up with that kind of sick, twisted choice?”

“Look,” McGovern continued, “the truth is, these guys don’t give a s– about everyday people. They’ve never gone hungry. They don’t even buy their own groceries, and they’ll never have to choose between putting food on the table or paying for healthcare. They have private cooks and concierge doctors.”

“Republicans are choosing to go after nutrition assistance,” he said. “Trump is doing this because he is a bad person. He’s a lousy president and an even worse human being. He’s weaponizing hunger and trying to rip food away from more than 40 million Americans, including 16 million children, for sadistic political leverage.”

“How dare he? How dare he exploit the pain of hungry Americans?”

RELATED: ‘Breaking the Law’: Trump Blasted After Threatening to Defy Judges’ Orders on SNAP Funds

“How dare he starve poor children who go to bed hungry?”

“These people are sick in the head,” McGovern charged. “They take food away from poor folks on Friday, and then they go to church on Sunday and proclaim to be good Christians. I’m not sure where in the Bible, it says that starving children makes you a good person. I must have missed that part.”

“But my faith tells me something else. It tells me that there’s a special place in hell for people who rip food away from hungry families,” he said.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) (@RepMcGovern): “The truth is these people don’t give a shit about everyday people … They take food away from poor folks on Friday and then they go to Church on Sunday and proclaim to be good Christians.” pic.twitter.com/C9rUZJW3AH

— CSPAN (@cspan) November 4, 2025

READ MORE: Johnson Urges SNAP Recipients to Come ‘Home’ to Republican Party