Breitbart Business Digest: The Executive Tariff Power and the American Constitutional Order

How American Presidents Got the Tariff Groove On

For years, critics have warned that presidential use of tariff authority threatens the separation of powers. We heard it when Trump imposed duties on steel and aluminum and certain Chinese imports. We hear it again today, as he rolls out varying tariff rates on almost the entire world. The accusation is always the same: that the president is usurping Congress’s role over taxation and trade.

But this view misreads both constitutional law and political reality. The president’s authority to impose tariffs is not a constitutional accident. It is the lawful outgrowth of Congress’s deliberate decision to delegate. The legal framework is stable. The institutional logic is sound. And the political consensus—expressed through elections and legislative

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