• Trump terms SC’s verdict “anti-American decision”.
• US president says raising tariffs “effective immediately”.
• Says many nations have been “ripping” US off for decades.
  

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Saturday he will raise a temporary tariff from 10% to 15% on US imports from all countries, the maximum level allowed under the law, after the US Supreme Court struck down his previous tariff programme.

Trump had immediately announced a 10% across-the-board tariff on Friday after the court’s decision, which found the president had exceeded his authority when he imposed an array of higher rates under an economic emergency law.

The new levies are grounded in a separate but untested law, known as Section 122, that allows tariffs up to 15% but requires congressional approval to extend them after 150 days. No president has previously invoked Section 122, and its use could lead to further legal challenges.

Trade experts and congressional aides are skeptical the Republican-majority Congress would extend the tariffs, given polls that show growing numbers of Americans blame the duties for higher prices.

Trump eyes other ways to impose tariffs

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said he would use the 150-day period to work on issuing other “legally permissible” tariffs. The administration intends to rely on two other statutes that permit import taxes on specific products or countries based on investigations into national security or unfair trade practices.

“I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the US off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

The Section 122 tariffs include exemptions for certain products, including critical minerals, metals and energy products, according to the White House.

Wendy Cutler, a former senior US trade official and senior vice president at the Asia Society think tank, said she was surprised Trump had not gone for the maximum Section 122 rate on Friday, but that his rapid-fire change underscored the uncertainty trading partners faced.

Trump, who often describes tariffs as his favorite word, has attacked individual justices in personal terms and insisted he retained the power to impose tariffs as he sees fit.

Trade deals must be honored: Greer

Trump has used the tariffs, or the threat of imposing them, to extract trade deals from foreign countries.

After the court’s decision, Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, told Fox News on Friday that those countries must honor agreements even if they call for higher rates than the Section 122 tariffs.

Exports to the US from countries such as Malaysia and Cambodia would continue to be taxed at their negotiated rates of 19%, even though the universal rate is lower, Greer said.

The ruling could spell good news for countries like Brazil, which has not negotiated a deal with Washington to lower its 40% tariff rate but could now see its tariff rate drop to 15%, at least temporarily.

Trump’s approval rating on his handling of the economy has steadily declined during his year in office, with 34% of respondents saying they approve and 57% saying they disapprove in a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday.

• World powers creating problems for Iran: Pezeshkian.
• His comments come after Feb 17 indirect talks in Geneva.
• Washington orders two aircraft carriers to Middle East.
  

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday said that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.

“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.

The Iranian president’s remarks come as President Donald Trump pushed the US to the brink of war with Tehran despite aides urging him to focus more on voters’ economic worries.

The US wants Iran to give up its nuclear programme, and Iran has refused and denied that it is trying to develop an atomic weapon.

Trump had suggested on Thursday that “bad things” would happen if Tehran did not strike a deal within 10 days, which he subsequently extended to 15.

Asked by a reporter on Friday whether he was contemplating a limited military strike, Trump answered: “The most I can say — I am considering it.”

Trump has ordered a huge buildup of forces in the Middle East and preparations for a potential multi-week air attack on Iran.

Washington has ordered two aircraft carriers to the region as it piles on pressure. The first — the USS Abraham Lincoln, with nearly 80 aircraft — was positioned about 700 kilometres (435 miles) from the Iranian coast, satellite images showed on February 18.

Its location puts at least a dozen US F‑35s and F‑18 fighter jets within striking distance. A second carrier, USS Gerald R Ford, was also dispatched to the Middle East.

Iran and the US renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme and avert a new military confrontation.

The two nations held indirect talks in Geneva on February 17, with little clear indication of compromise by any party.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner took part in the negotiations, mediated by Oman, alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

After the talks in Geneva, Tehran said the two sides had agreed to submit drafts of a potential agreement, which Araghchi told US media would be the “next step”.

“I believe that in the next two, three days, that would be ready, and after final confirmation by my superiors, that would be handed over to Steve Witkoff,” he said, referring to Trump’s main Middle East negotiator.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has pushed the United States to the brink of war with Iran even as aides urge him to focus more on voters’ economic worries, highlighting the political risks of military escalation ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

Trump has ordered a huge buildup of forces in the Middle East and preparations for a potential multi-week air attack on Iran. But he has not laid out in detail to the American public why he might be leading the US into its most aggressive action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.

Trump’s fixation on Iran has emerged as the starkest example yet of how foreign policy, including his expanded use of raw military force, has topped his agenda in the first 13 months of his second term, often overshadowing domestic issues like the cost of living that public opinion polls show are much higher priorities for most Americans.

A senior White House official said that, despite Trump’s bellicose rhetoric, there was still no “unified support” within the administration to go ahead with an attack on Iran.

Trump’s aides are also mindful of the need to avoid sending a “distracted message” to undecided voters more concerned about the economy, the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.

White House advisers and Republican campaign officials want Trump focused on the economy, a point that was stressed as the top campaign issue at a private briefing this week with numerous cabinet secretaries, according to a person who attended. Trump was not present.

A second White House official, responding to Reuters questions for this story, said Trump’s foreign policy agenda “has directly translated into wins for the American people.”

“All of the President’s actions put America First — be it through making the entire world safer or bringing economic deliverables home to our country,” the official said.

November’s election will decide whether Trump’s Republican Party continues to control both chambers of the US Congress. Loss of one or both chambers to opposition Democrats would pose a challenge to Trump in the final years of his presidency.

Rob Godfrey, a Republican strategist, said a prolonged conflict with Iran would pose significant political peril for Trump and his fellow Republicans.

“The president has to keep in mind the political base that propelled him to the Republican nomination — three consecutive times — and that continues to stick by him is sceptical of foreign engagement and foreign entanglements because ending the era of ‘forever wars’ was an explicit campaign promise,” Godfrey said.

Republicans plan to campaign on individual tax cuts enacted by Congress last year, as well as programmes to lower housing and some prescription drug costs.

Tougher foe than Venezuela

Despite some dissenting voices, many in Trump’s isolationist-minded “Make America Great Again” movement supported the lightning raid that deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month. 

But he could face more pushback if he steers the US into war with Iran, which would be a much more formidable foe.

Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if it does not reach an agreement on its nuclear programme, reiterated his warning on Friday, saying Tehran “better negotiate a fair deal”.

The US targeted nuclear sites in Iran in June, and Iran has threatened to retaliate fiercely if attacked again.

Trump won reelection in 2024 on his ‘America First’ platform in large part because of his promise to reduce inflation and avoid costly foreign conflicts, but he has been struggling to convince Americans that he is making inroads in bringing down high prices, public opinion polls show.

Still, Republican strategist Lauren Cooley said Trump’s supporters could support military action against Iran if it is decisive and limited.

“The White House will need to clearly connect any action to protecting American security and economic stability at home,” she said.

Even so, with polls showing little public appetite for another foreign war and Trump struggling to stay on message to fully address voters’ economic angst, any escalation with Iran is a risky move by a president who acknowledged in a recent interview with Reuters that his party could struggle in the midterms.

Varied war reasons

Foreign policy, historically, has rarely been a decisive issue for midterm voters. 

But, having deployed a large force of aircraft carriers, other warships and warplanes to the Middle East, Trump may have boxed himself in to carrying out military action unless Iran makes major concessions that it has so far shown little willingness to accept. Otherwise, he may risk looking weak internationally.

The reasons Trump has given for a possible attack have been vague and varied. He initially threatened strikes in January in reaction to the Iranian government’s bloody crackdown on nationwide street protests but then backed down.

He has more recently pinned his military threats to demands that Iran end its nuclear programme and has floated the idea of “regime change,” but he and his aides have not said how air strikes could make that happen.

The second White House official insisted that Trump “has been clear that he always prefers diplomacy, and that Iran should make a deal before it is too late.” The president, the official added, has also stressed that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon or the capacity to build one, and that they cannot enrich uranium.”

What many see as a lack of clarity stands in stark contrast to the extensive public case made by then-president George W Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which he said was meant to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction. Though that mission ended up being based on bad intelligence and false claims, Bush’s stated war aims were clear at the outset.

Godfrey, the Republican strategist, said independent voters – crucial in deciding the outcomes of close elections — will be scrutinising how Trump handles Iran.

“Midterm voters and his base will be waiting for the president to make his case,” he said.