Durbin says Trump left a ‘mess’ after Supreme Court blocks tariff policy

GLEN ELLYN, Ill. - Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D) says President Trump has left a "mess" after he says economists warned him his tariff policy was unconstitutional. 

What we know:

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Trump did not have emergency authority to enact tariffs without the approval of Congress. Durbin says the challenge will be to figure what to do next.

Durbin made the comments at an unrelated event in west suburban Glen Ellyn, where he and local Congressman Sean Casten (D IL) announced $4 million in federal funding for aviation training programs at the College of DuPage.

"Will there be an effort to refund these tariff trade taxes imposed on other countries?" Durbin said during an exclusive one-on-one interview Friday afternoon.

"The court described it as a mess; it's a mess of the president's own creation," he said. "The fact of the matter is this decision is one that was predicted by a lot of experts long ago."

What's next:

Durbin acknowledges that Congress doesn't yet have a plan on how to unwind the tariff revenues and pay them back.

"The American consumers have been paying these tariff trade taxes for months," Durbin said. "I worry about the following: let's assume I'm buying a product from overseas. The president imposed a 20% tariff. I pay the 20%. Now, who gets the refund? Me, the American consumer? The business? Or is it only going to go to the country where the tariff was imposed?"

The Save Act:

Durbin also weighed in on the prospect of passing a national voter I.D. law, known as the "Save Act." 

The law passed out of the U.S. House but faces an uphill battle in the U.S. Senate, where some in the GOP have publicly pressured Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R South Dakota) to eliminate the longstanding filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to break debate and move forward on legislation. Durbin says he doesn't believe Thune will bow to the pressure.

"I think the 60 vote threshold will hold up. But imposing a requirement on every voter that there are only three acceptable forms of identification, a passport — half of America doesn't own a passport," Durbin said. "The other one is a birth certificate. For the women of our country that got married and have a different name than the birth certificate, how do you explain that at the polling place where you want to vote?"