The Trump Tariff Baton: Conducting Power
Defying a Supreme Court setback, escalating military pressure abroad & projecting influence from Iran to Greenland - Trump is orchestrating a presidency that refuses to stay within traditional lines
With the Supreme Court drawing a clear constitutional line on tariffs, Donald Trump is responding not with restraint but with escalation - reaching for new legal tools, flexing military muscle abroad, and deploying symbolic gestures from Iran to Greenland as if conducting power with a tariff baton in hand. The result is a presidency testing the limits of executive authority on multiple fronts at once, blurring the boundary between economic policy, foreign intervention and political theatre - all while voters still wait for relief closer to home.
US President Donald Trump has said he will effectively immediately raise the global tariffs on countries from 10 to 15% a day after the Supreme Court ruled his sweeping tariffs exceeded executive authority. Trump said in a social media post on that he was making the decision “Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday,” by the US Supreme Court. The court, in a 6–3 ruling on Friday, struck down the far-reaching tariffs Trump imposed under an emergency powers law, handing him a major setback on a signature economic policy. “In order to protect our country, a president can actually charge more tariffs than I was charging… under the various tariff authorities,” he continued. The ruling centres on tariffs imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law typically used for sanctions and other economic tools, which Trump had invoked to justify broad import taxes. Other US presidents have used the statute many times, but Trump was the first to deploy it for tariffs. Trump said he was not worried by the decision, saying the SCOTUS decision “merely overruled a particular use of IEEPA”. “So we can use the other statutes, other tariff authorities, which have also been confirmed and are fully allowed.” Trump has repeatedly framed the dispute as existential for his economic agenda, even as polling has shown tariffs are not broadly popular amid wider voter anxiety about affordability. Vice President JD Vance took to X to express his disappointment with the “lawlessness” of the top court. “Today, the Supreme Court decided that Congress, despite giving the president the ability to ‘regulate imports’, didn’t actually mean it,” he said in a post on the social media platform. In its majority opinion, the court said the US constitution “very clearly” gives Congress the power to impose taxes — including tariffs — and not the president. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the framers of the constitution did not place taxing power in the executive branch. - Euronews
President Donald Trump is investing in one of the largest and most expensive military buildups in decades, just as he touts a promise of increasing affordability at home. He has sent dozens of aircraft carriers, fighter jets and surveillance planes to target Iran in the biggest accumulation of American firepower in the region since the Iraq War. Trump has warned of “speed and violence” if talks with Tehran fail to halt its nuclear enrichment program. The Pentagon effort — coupled with the January operation to oust former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro — could cost billions of dollars and strain military budgets with extended deployments. Trump on Thursday gave himself up to 10 days to make a decision on strikes. The costly endeavor is a significant shift for a president elected on an “America First” platform that focused on boosting the economy and staying out of wars abroad. Trump risks trampling on his affordability message before pivotal midterms with a high-priced military operation that could trigger assaults on American bases — and plunge the Middle East into turmoil. “The price of everything is still high, unemployment is still growing, and we’ve moved on from Venezuela to Iran,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who deployed to Iraq as a Marine. “People are going to wonder, ‘Where is the focus of this administration? It’s not on my pocketbook, on my checkbook.’ It’s focusing on these foreign wars that most Americans are not going to find that [are] directly connected to their interests.” The president has yet to make a final decision about whether to strike Iranian regime sites or what to target, according to two people familiar with the planning, who say the attacks could come as early as this weekend. Any move would likely concentrate on Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, according to one of the people.- Politico
Donald Trump said on Saturday he was working with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to send a hospital boat to Greenland — a Danish territory that Trump has said he wants to acquire. Trump announced the plan on social media moments before hosting a dinner for Republican governors at the White House, where he sat next to and chatted with Landry. “Working with the fantastic Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there. It’s on the way!!!” Trump said. Landry was appointed by Trump as a special envoy to Greenland last year. Neither the White House nor Landry’s office responded to queries about the post, whether the ship had been requested by Denmark or Greenland and which sick people needed help. The Department of War had no immediate comment - CBC
The costly endeavor is a significant shift for a president elected on an “America First” platform that focused on boosting the economy and staying out of wars abroad. Trump risks trampling on his affordability message before pivotal midterms with a high-priced military operation that could trigger assaults on American bases — and plunge the Middle East into turmoil - Paul McLeary and Joe Gould in Politico
A Ukrainian aerial attack on a Russian region some 1,900 kilometers from the border wounded at least 11 people, as Ukraine’s military claimed it targeted a weapons factory there with new long-range cruise missile. Officials in the central region of Udmurtia said some of those wounded were hospitalized in the attack, which they said involved Ukrainian drones targeting an unnamed facility. Ukraine’s military, however, said the facility was the Votkinsk factory, a sprawling complex where several major Russian weapons systems are manufactured including Yars, Iskander, and Oreshnik missiles. Video posted to several Telegram channels also purported to show fire and smoke at the Votkinsk factory. In a post to Telegram, the military also claimed the factory was hit using a new long-range cruise missile called the Flamingo. The missile, which first started appearing last year, is being developed by the Ukrainian company Fire Point. The company’s chief designer published a video on February 20 showing a launch of the missile with the caption: “Here’s a short video. No context. Context later.” Military experts are cautious about the Flamingo’s abilities, but Ukrainian officials, who have begged Western allies for cruise missiles like Tomahawks and Storm Shadows, are hoping to ramp up production of the homegrown weapon to increase their ability to hit targets deep in Russia. Russia, meanwhile, pounded Ukraine’s Black Sea city of Odesa overnight, hitting a power facility, while launching scores of drones and missile at targets across the country. At least two people were injured in the barrage. Early on February 22, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy said a policewoman was killed and at least 15 other people were injured in a series of explosions in the western Ukrainian city. Sadoviy called the blasts an "act of terror," although details remained scarce - RFE/RL
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says response and recovery efforts are ongoing following a Russian overnight attack with nearly 300 attack drones and 50 missiles of various types, a significant share of them ballistic. In a social media post today, he said the strikes targeted Kyiv and the region, the Dnipro, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, and Sumy regions. One person was killed an eight people were injured, including one child. The main target of the attack was the energy sector. Ordinary residential buildings were also damaged, and there is damage to the railway. Zelensky said that in the past week alone, Russia launched more than 1,300 attack drones against Ukraine, over 1,400 guided aerial bombs, and 96 missiles of various types, including dozens of ballistic ones.
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Thailand has started acting as a transit hub for Chinese drones deliveries to Russia in circumvention of Western sanctions, Bloomberg reported. Russia imported $125 million worth of drones from Thailand in the first 11 months of 2025, some 88% of Thailand’s total drone exports and an eightfold increase from the previous year, Bloomberg said, citing an analysis of trade documents. During the same period, China shipped $186 million worth of drones to Thailand, accounting for nearly all of the country’s drone imports, the agency said. By comparison, Thailand had exported less than $1 million worth of drones in 2022 the first year of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, none of which were sent to Russia. One of the largest importers was China Thai Corp., which imported $144 million worth of drones to Thailand from China in the first 11 months of 2025. The company was sanctioned by Britain in October 2025 for supplying technology to Russia’s army and is now changing its name to Lanto Global Logistics, Bloomberg said. Skyhub Technologies, another major importer, shipped in $25 million worth of products in 2025, including from Chinese manufacturer Autel Robotics. These included hundreds of the nominally civilian EVO Max 4T model, which can be used in combat, Bloomberg reported. Autel denied cooperating with the Russian military and said it complies with international sanctions in comments to Bloomberg. It added that its drones are equipped with a “no-fly geofencing system” to block flights in conflict zones. Third-country intermediaries are typical of sanctions evasion, said Maria Shagina of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “The countries may change but the methods do not: Rerouting via third countries using shell companies,” she told Bloomberg. It said the rise in shipments through Southeast Asia demonstrates the difficulty in restricting Russia’s access to dual-use technologies. At the same time, Thailand and Russia have deepened economic, political and cultural ties - Moscow Times
Arab and Islamic countries issued a joint condemnation on Sunday of remarks by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel had a biblical right to a vast swath of the Middle East. Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and a fervent Israel supporter, was speaking on the podcast of far-right commentator and Israel critic Tucker Carlson. In an episode released Friday, Carlson pushed Huckabee on the meaning of a biblical verse sometimes interpreted as saying that Israel is entitled to the land between the river Nile in Egypt and the Euphrates in Syria and Iraq. In response, Huckabee said: “It would be fine if they took it all.” When pressed, however, he continued that Israel was “not asking to take all of that,” adding: “It was somewhat of a hyperbolic statement.” The backlash widened sharply on Sunday as more than a dozen Arab and Islamic governments — alongside three major regional organizations — issued a joint statement denouncing the US diplomat’s comments as “dangerous and inflammatory.” The statement, released by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry, was signed by the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and the State of Palestine, as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council. They said the comments contravene the UN Charter and efforts to de-escalate the Gaza war and advance a political horizon for a comprehensive settlement - Arab News
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