‘Judicial coup!’: MAGA supremo Stephen Miller spitting mad after Trump tariff slapdown ruling

Donald Trump just got a smack on the nose and a firm reminder of the separation of powers. Three judges sitting on the New York-based court of international trade have ruled that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are 100% illegal.

Said tariffs were so incompetently planned that they even targeted an island inhabited only by penguins, but regardless, drove a bulldozer through the global economy and wiped billions of dollars of value off the stock exchange. Many wondered how one man was allowed to wreak such chaos, and now, it turns out he wasn’t.

The court’s ruling states bluntly that Trump’s tariffs “exceed any authority granted to the president … to regulate importation by means of tariffs”. In an important distinction, the judges weren’t ruling on whether Trump’s tariffs are a good idea, simply that whatever the case, he doesn’t have the right to impose them: “their use is “impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it”.

Trump himself has been suspiciously quiet about this ruling so far (expect an all-caps Truth Social post soon!), but as a measure of what the White House’s response will be, look no further than raving fascist Stephen Miller, currently serving as White House deputy chief of staff:

The judicial coup is out of control. https://t.co/PRRZ1zU6lI

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) May 28, 2025

Once again, the Constitution saves the day

Without wanting to be all Civics 101, the “coup” Miller is trumpeting is simply the system of checks and balances that’s been the bedrock of the American political position since 1787. In its simplest form, each branch of government has the power to limit the other two, resulting in intentional conflict and tension that limits individual influence over the country.

Naturally, Trump and his allies despise this notion. They want supreme power to be concentrated in one man: Donald Trump. In their ideal world, his word would be law, as proven by their frequent abuse of executive orders. But, like the inevitability of gravity, he can make executive orders but there’s a constitutional right to have them challenged in court, and, surprise surprise, judges are ruling that he’s behaving more like a dictator than a president.

All that said, expect Trump and his team to violently respond to this ruling. The three judges who made it will now become MAGA hate figures, with every inch of their lives pored over for a sniff of scandal. And, ultimately, if (or when) Trump’s team appeals this to the Supreme Court, it’s so stacked in his favor they may well overturn this ruling, slap these pesky judges out of the way, and usher the chaos back in.