Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent delivered an alternative interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday that struck down the legal basis for the president’s sweeping global tariffs, which the justices ruled was an unlawful use of executive authority.

“President Trump will always put our national security and Americans first,” Bessent told the Economic Club of Dallas, as Mediaite reported.

“Let’s be clear about what today’s ruling was and what it wasn’t. Despite the misplaced gloating from Democrats, ill-informed media outlets, and the very people who gutted our industrial base — the court did not rule against President Trump’s tariffs,” Bessent insisted.

Rather, he continued, the six justices “simply ruled that IEEPA authorities cannot be used to raise even $1 of revenue.”

He vowed that the Trump administration would “invoke alternative legal authorities” to replace the vehicle used to collect tariffs, which he said would be “virtually” equal to the level that was previously being collected.

The Secretary, commenting on whether consumers will get refunds from the approximately $175 billion in tariffs already collected, also said, “I got a feeling the American people won’t see it.”

READ MORE: Bush-Era ‘Torture Memo’ Author Warns Trump to Stop Smearing SCOTUS Over Tariff Ruling

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A former Bush Justice Department official is warning President Donald Trump against smearing the U.S. Supreme Court after the justices delivered a highly anticipated ruling that struck down the legal foundation of his sweeping global tariffs — a major setback for his economic agenda.

“It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think,” the president said on Friday, as the Guardian reported. Trump said he was “ashamed” of the six justices who sided with the majority opinion. “Absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.”

“They’re just being fools and lapdogs for the Rinos [Republicans in name only] and the radical left Democrats, and not that they should have anything at all to do with it,” Trump added. “They’re very unpatriotic and disloyal to our constitution.”

John Yoo, the prominent Bush administration Deputy Assistant Attorney General known for writing what have been called the “torture memos,” appeared on Fox News on Friday and warned the president.

READ MORE: Donald Trump’s Very Bad Day

“I think President Trump would be wise to no longer call the justices somehow tools of foreign influence,” he said, reminding him that the Roberts Supreme Court has been giving him “a number of wins.”

Yoo also noted that, had he been at the DOJ under President Trump, he would have been “shuddering” when he heard him speak about the court as he did, “because President Trump has got a number of other big cases pending at the court, like whether it can fire the heads of independent commissions, whether it can fire a governor of the Federal Reserve Board, whether redistricting can go on.”

Even Fox News is telling Trump to pump the brakes on accusing SCOTUS of being controlled by foreign actors, reminding him he has other “big cases” before the court.

John Yoo: “I think President Trump would be wise to no longer call the justices somehow tools of foreign influence.”

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— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) February 20, 2026 at 2:31 PM

READ MORE: ‘Can’t Play Cute With Me’: Trump Tries to Spin Big-Power Snub of Peace Board
 

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Political commentator and strategist James Carville says the Epstein files scandal is not ever going to go away.

“It’s never gonna go away, and if you think about it, it can’t go away,” Carville told to Al Hunt on their Politicon podcast.

“What do you have?” he continued. “You have a really rich guy, filthy rich … with a glamorous woman who’s harvesting young women around the world. You got princes, and Ivy League professors, and politicians, and bankers, and sports organizers, and didn’t get all of that. And then you got a dead body.”

“And then you got secrecy everywhere, and it’s not going away 30 years from now. They’re gonna still be digging through that stuff. They lied about everything,” Carville said.

READ MORE: Donald Trump’s Very Bad Day

“There’s nothing you can say to make this go away,” he continued. “And there’s so much s — — we don’t know.”

“You know, I didn’t — I must say, six months ago, I did not think that the Epstein issue would still be with us, and certainly not with us through the 2026 campaign,” Hunt said. “I was wrong.”

“There are three reasons it’s not going away. Number one, the dissembling, by the White House, and its subsidiary, the Justice Department — there clearly is a cover up of some stuff,” he added.

“Two, Ro Khanna, a liberal Democrat, and Tom Massey, a conservative Republican, are leading the fight for full exposure. They have proven to be bulldogs, and they won’t give up,” Hunt said.

He added that the third reason the Epstein files are here to stay “is those victims, the women who have courageously spoken up against the sexual abuse trafficking of Epstein and his accomplice, Maxwell, won’t be silenced until the Justice Department ends this limited hangout approach.”

Hunt also pointed to “a headline in Wednesday’s Washington Post, quote, Epstein fallout rattles the globe. Many powerful people face consequences,” which he noted was “true in every place but the Trump administration.”

READ MORE: ‘Can’t Play Cute With Me’: Trump Tries to Spin Big-Power Snub of Peace Board

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