Unless the Supreme Court rules otherwise, President Trump will soon require approval from Congress to keep in place the broad-based tariffs he has imposed, altering the nation’s social contract and increasing economic inequality.

Trump and his Cabinet have boasted that tariffs, now averaging almost 20 percent, will bring in tens or even hundreds of billions annually in new revenue into federal coffers. Alongside this narrative, administration officials claim that the tariff revenue can replace income taxes to fund government operations and pay interest on the national debt.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals underscored just before Labor Day that tariffs are taxes — and that only Congress has the power to raise taxes.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act upon which Trump hinges mo

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