WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is heading into the first State of the Union address of his second term fresh off his biggest second-term setback, and after a number of other stumbles that have some GOP allies beginning to push back.

The Supreme Court handed him a stinging defeat Friday when it knocked down most of his global tariffs, prompting an angry response from Trump during an impromptu press briefing. In a vintage Trump move, on Saturday he increased a 10% replacement import fee to 15%, doubling down on a policy that has given some Republican lawmakers political heartburn.

“Congress has basically given the executive (branch) a lot of authority on tariffs,” said New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler on CNN Sunday. “Now you have the Supreme Court weighing in and saying, ‘No, Congress has a role.’ And so we are going to be working through that process as we move forward. And I think it’s going to be incumbent on the administration to sit down with Congress to determine the best path.”

Utah GOP Sen. John Curtis wrote on X that “today’s ruling affirms, despite all the noise of the moment, that the Founders’ system of checks and balances remains strong nearly 250 years later.”

“Several questions remain unanswered, including what happens to the revenue already collected and how the Administration may use alternative authorities to impose tariffs,” he added. “Looking ahead, it is critical that we provide the clarity and predictability businesses need.”

John Yoo, a former senior Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration, on Friday criticized Trump for contending during his press conference that the six Supreme Court justices who voted to terminate the tariffs had been corrupted by foreign entities.

“I think that foreign interests are represented by people that I believe have undue influence, have a lot of influence, over the Supreme Court,” Trump said without offering evidence. “Whether it’s through fear or respect or friendships, I don’t know, but I know some of the people that were involved on the other side, and I don’t like them. I think they’re real slimeballs.”

Yoo told Fox News that he sensed “a much more charitable reading to what he was saying,” adding: “I don’t think he thinks that foreign companies were lobbying the justices or trying to influence them in any direct way.”

“I think he’s referring to this argument that we’ve heard made for many years, that the justices have been seduced by a European view of law, by European views of globalization, that they’re susceptible to changing the way they think, and don’t focus enough on the American Constitution and its text and history, and they’re sometimes given to fancy European theories and philosophies about law which favor activist judges, sort of managing society,” Yoo said.

The right-leaning legal analyst pushed back on Trump’s tactic of making such claims when the court will decide the fate of a number of his policies.

“And I think that’s the last thing that could describe this Roberts court. Right now, they are trying to perform a more modest role, and they have been giving President Trump a number of wins in other places,” he said. “But if I was President Trump’s lawyers at DOJ, I would have been shuddering when I heard him say that, because President Trump has got a number of other big cases pending at the court, like whether it can fire the heads of independent commissions, whether it can fire a governor or the Federal Reserve Board, whether redistricting can go on. I think President Trump would be wise to no longer call the justices somehow tools of foreign influence.”

Other issues

The tariff ruling came after federal immigration enforcement agents killed several American citizens, leading to a pullback of immigration officers in Minneapolis and other major cities. A Washington Post-IPSOS-ABC News poll conducted Feb. 12-17 found that 60% of respondents disapproved of how Trump is handling the job, including 47% who strongly disapproved. (Thirty-nine percent approved, including 19% who strongly approved.)

What’s more, data released Friday by the Commerce Department showed economic growth slowed to 1.4% (gross domestic product) in the fourth quarter of 2025, down from an annualized rate of 4.4% in the third quarter.

Trump had falsely boasted during an interview with NBC News on Feb. 4 that the growth rate was approaching 6%. “I’m very proud of it: 5.6%. You know, we have a GDP of 5.6 despite a shutdown,” he said.

The pushback from Republicans has not been limited to tariffs.

The commander in chief has ordered a massive movement of U.S. military combat and supporting platforms toward the Middle East as he contemplates a possible second round of strikes in Iran.

Trump and some of his senior aides have described the deployment as an attempt to compel Iranian leaders to strike a deal to curb its nuclear program. Those talks are slated to resume Thursday, but Trump’s own previous assessment of Iran’s nuclear capabilities have created a murky policy direction.

During a June 21 prime-time address about strikes on Iranian targets he ordered last year, Trump called the sites “completely and totally obliterated.” His White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters a few days later that three Iranian facilities suffered “total obliteration” and were “completely demolished.”

One Republican strategist, granted anonymity to be candid, questioned the administration’s current Iran trajectory.

“I need to hear my president explain where he’s heading on Iran,” the strategist said. “It’s not like the No. 1 issue on the minds of most Americans is killing the ayatollah.”

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