How Congress handed Trump a trade tyranny

How can the president levy all these tariffs without congressional approval? Because they let him.

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | AP Photo, MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump loves tariffs. And he's slapping them on China, Europe, and anyone one else who gets on his bad side.

When you think about this, it's actually really strange. Tariffs are taxes, and the Constitution very clearly gives taxing power to Congress. Presidents have to sign off on these laws, of course, but it's Congress that writes and passes them. Yet there's Trump, unilaterally jacking up duties on steel, aluminum, and other goods without any input from the legislature whatsoever.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.