Newsom Calls Trump A ‘Punch-Drunk Boxer’ For Lashing Out At Supreme Court Over Tariffs Ruling

By Eleonore Christiansen on February 23, 2026

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) accused President Donald Trump of flailing after he admonished the U.S. Supreme Court for striking down his sweeping tariffs last week.

On Friday, the court ruled Trump didn’t have the emergency power to impose the sweeping tariffs, prompting him to sign an executive order Friday night stating he could bypass Congress and impose a 10% tax on global imports. Then on Saturday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was raising the global tariff to 15%.

“Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday, after MANY months of contemplation, by the United States Supreme Court, please let this statement serve to represent that 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 U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” Trump wrote.

“The whole thing is a farce,” Newsom told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview that aired Sunday. “I talk about petulance. It was 10% two days ago, maybe 20% tomorrow. I mean, this is madness.”

Newsom also said Trump was flailing.

“He’s a punch-drunk boxer,” Newsom said. “He’s just trying to hit anything, a shadow, and he’s a shadow of himself. He’s lost a step or two.”

Newsom said Trump’s tariffs were ”always an illegal act,” and that he needs to return the money.

“He needs to refund that money with interest,” Newsom said. “He could do that in a nanosecond. They could do that electronically.”

Newsom then likened Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to the 1994 screwball comedy “Dumb & Dumber,” and said the pair had “wrecked this economy.”

“[Trump’s] entire economic paradigm is mass deportations, tax cuts for billionaires and tariffs. And he’s been exposed. He’s a fraud. And by the way, the tariff? This is a self-dealing operation. This is about his personal portfolio,” Newsome added.

Watch a clip from Newsom’s “State of the Union” interview below.

pic.twitter.com/tI1yiSoZw1

— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) February 22, 2026

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Newsom reacts to Supreme Court ruling striking down most of Trump’s tariffs: “He’s flailing” pic.twitter.com/tI1yiSoZw1

— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) February 22, 2026

Newsom Calls Trump A ‘Punch-Drunk Boxer’ For Lashing Out At Supreme Court Over Tariffs Ruling

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