Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs has always rested on shaky legal ground, but the strategy may have been less about winning in court and more about forcing policy into reality. By invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and declaring that the U.S. trade deficit posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” Trump sidestepped Congress and unilaterally put tariffs into place.

Legal experts have agreed that the statute was never intended to cover chronic economic conditions, and courts have already ruled against the rationale, pointing out that a long-standing trade imbalance is neither unusual nor extraordinary.