National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Friday the White House could deploy alternative measures if the Supreme Court rules against President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose sweeping levies.
“There was a big call last night with all the principals to talk about if the Supreme Court were to rule against this IEEPA tariff, what would the next step be?,” Hassett said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” referring to the administration’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“There are a lot of other legal authorities that can reproduce the deals that we’ve made with other countries, and can do so basically immediately. And so our expectation is that we’re going to win, and if we don’t win, then we know that we’ve got other tools that we could use that get us to the same place,” he said.
Hassett said U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer has been closely involved in mapping out contingency plans.
Investors are awaiting a potential Supreme Court ruling on the legality of Trump’s tariffs, which could have an impact on trade policy and the nation’s fiscal situation. Wall Street expects the high court to issue a decision as soon as Friday, which is its first decision day of 2026, but that is not certain.
Hassett is one of the finalists for the Federal Reserve chair job as Trump moves close to picking a successor to Jerome Powell, whose term as chair is up in May.
“I’m really happy with the job I have here,” he said. “We’ll see what the president thinks about where I should be.”
