The Fight Over Trump's Tariffs Just Got REAL!

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Trump’s tariffs just got knocked out by an appeals court—and now the battle heads to the Supreme Court. The big question: do “emergency powers” really cover kettlebells, flatware, and barbells? In this episode of Watchdog on Wall Street:

• Why Trump’s tariff strategy is getting shredded in the courts
• The flatware factory cheering tariffs—and why that story isn’t the whole picture
• How higher prices are hitting consumers while Washington spins it as “great for America”
• Why the real issue is picking winners and losers instead of free markets

Tariffs aren’t free money—they’re taxes. And Americans are the ones paying the bill.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
What appeals court knocked out Donald Trump's tariffs. It's gonna
go to the Supreme Court and we shall see. The
issue at hand is whether or not this is an emergency.
Donald Trump us is that he likes to use emergency

(00:38):
powers and he basically his argument is is that because
of metanl he has the right to put on all
of these TIFFs. Now, I'm gonna ask you a quick question.
Is it an emergency an emergency that he puts tariffs
on kettle balls, barbells, flatwear. I don't know. It seems

(01:07):
to me it's going to be a bit of a stretch. However, again,
every single court so far has knocked down his tariffs
and his emergency powers. But we shall see in the
Supreme Court. Is interesting a couple of articles out today
actually talking about specific tariffs on specific items, because he's
basically going line by line by line and saying, hey, listen,

(01:32):
we're whacking this product. We're not going to whack that product.
We're going to whack this product. Story about it again. Interesting.
A flatware maker used to be the country's largest flatwear
maker upstate New York and they are thrilled, thrilled that
Donald Trump is putting tariffs on flatwear. It helps them.

(01:53):
They went bankrupt once. They're trying to come back and
they said they can't. They can't make product here in
the United States that people want to buy because it's
just too expensive. And this is one of the this
is the argument that people have for tariffs. We want
to protect this country from cheap imports. Okay, how do

(02:17):
you feel about that as a consumer? I don't know.
You know, I'm from the camp that as long as
long as whe wherever you're getting the imports from, as
long as they are not subsidizing the government's not subsidizing

(02:38):
that industry, they're not dumping product in our country and
gives us an unfair gives them an unfair advantage. You know.
I like having lower prices. And this idea that the
United States to just become this complete, walled off, self

(02:58):
contained unit. You know, some people think that that's the
greatest thing going however, you want history be a guide China,
try that and it It didn't work well for them
at all. And again that's where they declined. Where they
were once the most powerful, highest GDP of any nation

(03:23):
in the entire world. When they were trading what everyone
they stopped that. They stopped that, and then they went backwards.
They closed themselves off to the rest of the world. Again,
We're going to see where this thing ends up. I
don't know at this point in time. Again, I'm hearing

(03:44):
it from both sides from people out there. The reality though,
is and again the justification that they keep using when
when it comes to this and all the tariff revenue
that we're bringing in and find some of them are
starting to admit that, yes, it's a tax on the
American people, and prices are coming up, more and more companies,

(04:09):
more and more companies coming out and saying, yes, we
are going to raise our prices. And again, if you
speak to any of the executives at these companies, yeah,
they're doing it little by little. They're doing it little
by little, but you're going to be paying more. You
couple this with the fact that the cost of living

(04:32):
is so high in the United States. Again, it's affecting everyone.
You're seeing story after story, younger people out there, really
scared for the future. We've talked about this here on
the program. You know, I see the differences when i'm
you know, I traveled various different places around the world,

(04:53):
and the difference between what we pay and what others pay.
And it's significant, it really is. When I have more
and more clients, more and more clients of ours asking
questions about you know me, maybe I should retire and Portugal.
Maybe I should retire in Spain, Maybe I should retire

(05:13):
in Greece somewhere else because the cost of living is
that much lower. It's a reality. It's a reality. And
again you want to close the walls off, bring everything here. Again,
you're going to be paying much much more. Not to
mention the fact, do you think it's going to stick?

(05:35):
Do you think it's going to stick? Next, Let's say
someone else come different from Democrats. I don't know. Maybe
they will, Maybe they'll they like all of this tax
revenue because that's what it is coming into the federal treasury. Again,
we're being gaslighted by the current administration talking about how
fantastic this is and it's great for the finances of

(05:58):
the United States. Yet you take a look at our
budget deficits that continue to grow. They're not doing anything
when it comes to cutting spending. Little to nothing as
far as I'm concerned, as far as I can see.
I mean again, you are what your record say. As
you are, you could take it to look at the
numbers as much as I can take a look at
the numbers. How will Congress react to this? Again, we're

(06:23):
getting back Congress coming back into session, and I'm sure
Donald Trump is going to be, you know, making a
lot of phone calls saying, hey, you know, listen, these
teriffs can put away. We're going to need to do
this through Congress the way it should have been done
in the first place. I don't see it. I don't
see it happening again. I don't see it flying at all.
I don't think you're going to get Congress to get

(06:44):
on board with this, so you won't have enough people
to go along with it. Certainly as it's being applied
right now, where it's haphazard, where you're picking and choosing
winners and losers. Again, we're supposed to be equal under
the law here in the United states. Go back to
Liberation Day. Yeah, I know, I've discussed this before here

(07:04):
on the program. Back at Liberation Day, beginning of the speech,
it looked like it was going to be ten, ten
or fifteen percent, remember, exactly across the board, and the
financial markets had a big sigh of relief. They were

(07:26):
thrilled with that, Okay, we're gonna get tariffs, but at
least you know what they are. It's gonna make sense.
And markets went through the roof as soon as he
came up with that ridiculous chart and all these reciprocal
tariffs and many of them are not even reciprocal at
this point in time. I don't understand the tariffs on Brazil.
You know, we run a trade surplus with them. That's

(07:46):
when things went, Hey why and now again it's it's
piece mail, it's picking and choosing. I don't see how
that's going to hold up in the courts. Watchdog on
Wall Street dot Com