The Supreme Court just handed Trump his biggest legal defeat of the second term.
Now a partisan Obama judge is shielding Jerome Powell from a criminal investigation into a $2.5 billion money pit.
And Trump is done pretending everything is fine.
The Court That Wasn't Supposed to Do This
On February 20, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that Trump's emergency tariffs violated federal law – wiping out roughly $160 billion already collected and potentially triggering hundreds of billions in refunds to foreign importers.
The majority included three of Trump's own appointees: Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Chief Justice John Roberts.
That's the part that fired Trump up.
"The Democrats on the Court always 'stick together,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday night. "But Republicans do not do this. They openly disrespect the Presidents who nominate them to the highest position in the Land."
https://twitter.com/DailyTruthPosts/status/2033460482116575582?s=20
He's right about the math.
The liberal bloc – Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson – voted as a unit to kill the tariffs.
Meanwhile, Gorsuch and Barrett crossed over and joined them.
Only Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Alito held the line – and Trump thanked all three by name for their "Wisdom and Courage."
The tariffs were the economic backbone of Trump's America First trade agenda – the "Liberation Day" reciprocal tariffs that hit China at 145 percent and raised duties on trading partners who've been gaming American trade law for decades.
Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, ruled that a 1977 law called IEEPA – which allows the president to "regulate" imports during emergencies – doesn't include the power to set tariffs.
Trump's response: the court "decided to, potentially, give away Trillions of Dollars to Countries and Companies who have been taking advantage of the United States for decades."
He's already fighting back.
The administration moved to a new tariff framework under Section 122 and launched Section 301 investigations targeting most major trading partners.
The IEEPA tariffs are gone. The trade war isn't.
The Judge Who Keeps Showing Up
The second Truth Social post went after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg – the Obama-appointed chief judge who quashed the DOJ's criminal subpoenas against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The investigation focused on a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed's Washington headquarters – a project that started at $1.9 billion and quietly ballooned by over $600 million while Powell was telling Congress everything was fine.
https://twitter.com/NewsNew97351204/status/2032211731674448070?s=20
The same Fed that spent three years refusing to cut interest rates while your grocery bill doubled was burning through hundreds of millions in cost overruns on its own palace.
Powell testified before the Senate Banking Committee last June, denying that luxury features drove the costs.
Trump and his allies argued he misled Congress.
Boasberg saw it differently.
In a 27-page ruling unsealed Friday, he wrote that the subpoenas had one purpose: pressure Powell to cut interest rates or resign.
"A mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning," Boasberg wrote.
"On the other side of the scale, the Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime."
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro fired back at a news conference Friday.
"Jerome Powell is now bathed in immunity preventing my office from investigating the Federal Reserve," she said. "This judge has put himself at the entrance door to the grand jury, slamming that door shut."
Trump named Boasberg directly – calling him someone who "suffers from the highest level of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), and has been 'after' my people, and me, for years."
That's not hyperbole.
Boasberg is the same judge who tried to block Trump's deportation flights and issued contempt inquiries against White House officials.
A judicial complaint filed against him last year was eventually dismissed.
What These Two Rulings Have in Common
Trump has run into the same wall twice in one week – not from Democrats, but from lifetime-appointed judges who face zero accountability for their rulings.
The tariff decision hands hundreds of billions back to foreign importers – China, the EU, countries that have spent decades hollowing out American manufacturing – because three Republican-appointed justices decided IEEPA's word "regulate" wasn't broad enough to include tariffs.
The Powell ruling goes further.
Boasberg read over 100 of Trump's Truth Social posts into the judicial record and used them as evidence of improper motive.
https://twitter.com/corefrontline/status/2033588543566631273?s=20
His logic: because Trump publicly criticized Powell over interest rates, any DOJ investigation touching Powell is automatically suspect.
If that reasoning holds on appeal, it effectively immunizes anyone Trump has ever criticized publicly from federal prosecution.
Pirro called it "the antithesis of American justice" and announced an immediate appeal.
Trump went loud on Truth Social instead of going quiet – which tells you exactly how seriously he's taking both rulings.
Powell's term expires in May.
His replacement, Kevin Warsh, is waiting for a confirmation vote that Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has vowed to block until the DOJ probe is resolved.
Boasberg's ruling just made that timeline even messier.
The courts blocked two battles. The war is still going.
Sources:
- "Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump," Supreme Court of the United States, February 20, 2026.
- Charlie McCarthy, "Trump Blasts Courts Over Tariffs, Powell Ruling in Fiery Posts," Newsmax, March 16, 2026.
- Tom Howell Jr., "Judge Blocks Criminal Probe of Fed Chair Jerome Powell," The Washington Times, March 13, 2026.
- "DOJ to Appeal Judge's Block of Subpoenas to Fed in Jerome Powell Criminal Investigation," CNBC, March 15, 2026.
- "United States Terminates IEEPA-Based Tariffs Following Supreme Court Decision," White & Case LLP, February 24, 2026.
- "Trump Slams Federal Reserve's Renovation Project, Calls Powell a 'Clown,'" Fox Business, November 2025.