Days after a federal appeals court declared most of his tariffs illegal, US President Donald Trump on Sunday, strongly defended his trade policy and thanked an Obama-appointed judge for siding with him in the ruling.In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said tariffs had brought “TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS” into the US and without them “our Country would be completely destroyed, and our military power would be instantly obliterated.” Trump wrote, “without Tariffs, and all of the TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS we have already taken in, our Country would be completely destroyed, and our military power would be instantly obliterated.” He went on to criticise the court’s majority decision but praised one Democratic-appointed judge for supporting his position. “In a 7 to 4 Opinion, a Radical Left group of judges didn’t care, but one Democrat, Obama appointed, actually voted to save our Country. I would like to thank him for his Courage! He loves and respects the USA,” Trump wrote.

The US court of appeals for the federal circuit ruled this week that Trump had overstepped his presidential authority when he imposed wide-ranging “reciprocal tariffs” on nearly every country in April. The levies were set to cover about 69 percent of US imports but will now only affect around 16 percent unless overturned by the Supreme Court, before October 14 later this year.Despite the setback, parts of Trump’s trade agenda remain intact. Sector-specific duties on steel and aluminum, as well as tariffs on Chinese goods first introduced in his previous term, were not impacted by the ruling.