During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Greg Kelly Reports,” Vice President JD Vance commented on court rulings on tariffs and said that the president generally has large discretion to protect American consumers, industries, and markets and “we are in an emergency. You have seen foreign governments, sometimes our adversaries, threaten the American people with the loss of critical supplies. I’m not talking about toys, plastic toys. I’m talking about pharmaceutical ingredients. I’m talking about the critical pieces of the manufacturing supply chain. If these governments are threatening to cut us off from that stuff, that is, by definition, a national emergency. And in that national emergency,” which gives the president large amounts of power.
Vance said, “The president has very broad discretions to engage in foreign policy to actually protect American consumers from foreign predators, from people who are trying to access our markets, dump into our markets, destroy American industries. The president has a lot of power to prevent that stuff from happening.”
He continued, “Now, this court decision, I think, is really based on a legal technicality. And so, my second point is, the president also has broad discretion to deal with this stuff. So, even if you, somehow, had this legal technicality hold up in court, I think there are a lot of ways in which the president of the United States can protect American workers and protect American workers from these very, very unfair unfair trade practices. And I think it’s important, Greg, to say, okay, what does this mean for the American people? We believe, and we’re right, that we are in an emergency. You have seen foreign governments, sometimes our adversaries, threaten the American people with the loss of critical supplies. I’m not talking about toys, plastic toys. I’m talking about pharmaceutical ingredients. I’m talking about the critical pieces of the manufacturing supply chain. If these governments are threatening to cut us off from that stuff, that is, by definition, a national emergency. And in that national emergency, the president has very broad discretion to fight back, to bring American industry back home, and to make American consumers protected and much safer. That’s all he’s trying to do. So, whatever this court has said, I think the president has the authority to do his job.”
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