Trump’s Emergency Tariff Scheme Struck Down

By Sue Kientz

On Friday morning, February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court finally published their decision on the case that challenged Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs. In short, Trump lost. The surprising 6-3 decision, in which all three liberal justices were joined by Chief Justice Roberts and two of Trump’s picks, Justices Gorsuch and Barrett, ruled that President Trump overstepped his presidential authority and could not use a law meant for an emergency, to levy worldwide tariffs on any and all countries, indiscriminately, for whatever he pleased.(1) These tariffs garnered about $1.75 billion in what amounts to import taxes mostly paid by consumers. The court did not rule on any mechanism to refund this money, mainly because the suit had nothing to do with that issue.

Even since the original suit was filed in April 2025,(2) Trump and his administration knew that the Supreme Court could ultimately rule against his tariffs because the scheme employed emergency powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, and Trump’s so-called emergencies, high prices and illegal drugs entering the country, seemed insufficient national emergencies. But Trump was undeterred at the odds he faced to win the resulting court challenges. Why would he take such a chance with the American (and world) economy, by enacting dicey tariffs to fill the hole in the annual budget created by his demand that the Republican-led congress pass a huge tax cut for most Americans, even those making more than $1 billion a year? This question has stumped many a talking head on the evening news but is one for which astrology offers some answers.

Donald Trump has long had a reputation for making high-risk business bets, with his casino properties a prime example of how this courts eventual ruin.(3) In so many of his various business enterprises, Donald Trump has taken oversized risks just like a gambler, but that’s no surprise for someone born with Sun (22 Gemini) square (90 degrees, a challenge) dwarf planet Quaoar (0 Libra), the latter symbolizing play, experimenting, and creative activity, but whose dark side involves pulling pranks, gambling, and playing for keeps.(4) As this “early review” case(5) challenging his global tariffs slowly succeeded in the lower courts and eventually landed in the U.S. Supreme Court docket, astrologers who watched the approach of Saturn and Neptune reaching a milestone conjunction (0 degrees) at 0 Aries on February 20, which would be exactly opposite Trump’s “risk-taking” Quaoar, considered that if the high court ruled that day or near it, Trump would be severely rebuked, as his big gamble would be, literally, “opposed” (Aries is opposite Libra) by Saturn (an ultimate authority) and Neptune (a collection that embraces a unity of entities, as in “all Americans,” “all the countries,” or “all the world”). Call it a coincidence, but less than two hours before Saturn exactly conjoined Neptune at 0 Aries,(6) the official decision from an ultimate authority (Saturn) offered relief on a grand scale to thousands of American small businesses and consumers, to foreign countries and businesses, to the whole world (Neptune).

President Trump already claims he has replacement plans to use another statute to keep using tariffs, but those have a time limit that only Congress can extend.(7) As the U.S. Supreme Court insisted again and again in its ruling,(8) Congress has the power of taxation, not the President of the United States.

Title Image credit: Author described image to ChatGPT, with some editing using Photopea.

Notes and References

1. Marimow, Ann E., “Live Updates: Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump’s Sweeping Tariffs,” The New York Times, 20 February 2026, 10:15 a.m. ET, https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02/20/us/trump-tariffs-supreme-court
2. Brown, Nicholas P., and E. Cox, “From longshot lawsuit to landmark ruling: How a family toy business took on Trump’s tariffs,” Reuters, 20 February 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/longshot-lawsuit-landmark-ruling-how-family-toy-business-took-trumps-tariffs-2026-02-20/
3. “Bankruptcy expert studies Trump casinos,” Temple Now (Temple University), 25 October 2016, https://now.temple.edu/news/2016-10-25/bankruptcy-expert-studies-trump-casinos
4. Trump, Donald J., June 14, 1946, 10:54 a.m., Queens, NY, Birth Cert., https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Trump,_Donald              
5. An “early review” case is one requesting a speedy decision, but if appeals are made, the process is slowed down.
6. For more on the potency of the Saturn/Neptune conjunction, see Hyde, Lynne, “The New Moon’s Energetic News: Aquarius – 17 February 2026,” ANS, 16 February 2026, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/the-new-moons-energetic-news-aquarius-17-february-2026/
7. Breuninger, Kevin, “Trump announces new 10% global tariff after raging over Supreme Court loss,” CNBC, 20 February 2026, https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/20/trump-global-trade-tariff-supreme-court.html
8. “Read the Supreme Court’s Decision on Trump’s Sweeping Tariffs,” The New York Times, 20 February 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/02/20/us/politics/supreme-court-tariffs-decision.html

For keywords and example personalities of the new dwarf planets, see “Dwarf Planet Basics,” 6 November 2024, ANS, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/dwarf-planet-basics/

For more details about the angles or relationships between planets, see Lynne Hyde’s “Astrology Basics,” 12 November 2024, ANS, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/astrology-basics/