Trump Warns of $3 Trillion Economic Disaster if Supreme Court Rules Against Tariffs

The president highlighted tariff dividend checks.

A U.S. flag flies in front of cranes at the Conley Container Terminal in Boston on Nov. 4, 2025. Brian Snyder/Reuters

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States faces an economic and national security catastrophe of $3 trillion if the Supreme Court nullifies his use of an emergency powers statute to place tariffs on most nations.

“The U.S. Supreme Court was given the wrong numbers. The ‘unwind’ in the event of a negative decision on Tariffs, would be, including investments made, to be made, and return of funds, in excess of 3 Trillion Dollars,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in the early hours on Tuesday. “It would not be possible to ever make up for that kind of a ‘drubbing.’ That would truly become an insurmountable National Security Event, and devastating to the future of our Country - Possibly non-sustainable!”

Trump also said his administration is looking into $2,000 stipends to lower- and middle-income Americans through tariff dividends, as well as to go toward paying off the national debt.

In a Truth Social post earlier on Monday, Trump vowed to use revenues to pay down national debt while sending payments to non-affluent Americans.

After hearing arguments, the Supreme Court is deliberating the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Justices will make a decision on the use of executive power in trade levies.

“I think it’s one of the most important cases in the history of our country,” the president said, highlighting that the tariffs are a “defensive mechanism for our country, as national security for our country.”

He said that a 100 percent tariff on China led to a “wonderful deal for everybody, our farmers, as you know, with soybeans at levels that nobody’s ever seen before.” Trump highlighted “phenomenal” trade deals his administration has made.

“If we didn’t have the tariffs, we wouldn’t have been able to do that,” he said.

In the case, the Supreme Court will determine whether or not Trump’s reciprocal and fentanyl-related tariffs are in line with the 1970s emergency power laws. The Supreme Court could take weeks or even months before deciding on the case.

“There are lots of other authorities that can be used,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who attended oral arguments, said in a Nov. 4 interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Trump said he thought the administration had done well during oral arguments and said that a ruling against the administration in regards to tariffs would be “devastating” for the U.S., but the administration would prepare a backup plan.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “Most people tell me we did very well legally.”

The president said he hopes the administration wins the case.

“I can’t imagine that anybody would do that kind of devastation to our country,” he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.