What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to shift the blame for his (probably illegal) tariffs to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court is likely, although not certain, to announce on Wednesday that it is allowing a lower court's ruling against most of Trump's tariffs to stand. Legal experts have been saying for months that Trump's case is weak, and even the extremely deferential majority he's appointed to the Court is unlikely to rule in his favor.

That would mean that the federal government would likely be required to refund the bulk of the taxes collected to the importers that paid them in the first place—although it would not help American consumers, who have been repaying those importers in the form of higher prices.

The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to set tariffs. The flaw in Trump's argument is that the laws he has invoked to set the tariffs himself require there to be a "national security" justification in the form of an "unusual and extraordinary threat." But Trump has frequently and openly cited his personal anger or desire for political revenge as a reason for imposing tariffs. 

Even when he hasn't done that, the Court seems unwilling to accept that national security is threatened by American consumers not paying through the nose for groceries. 

Trump has apparently realized that the game is up, and is now trying to shift to blame the Court itself, saying that the country will be "SCREWED" by having to refund illegally collected taxes. He's partially right: it will be an enormous mess, and many small- and medium-sized businesses may find it too burdensome or legally costly to try to recover their losses. And, of course, many businesses didn't survive the initial shock of seeing the imports they relied on to make their own products soar in price. That's been an even bigger problem for America's farms. 

But even as businesses and consumers are hurting from having to pay those taxes in the first place, the bottom line of the Treasury won't be affected very much. For all Trump's rhetoric, import taxes still account for a very small proportion of overall federal revenue: only about 3.5%, and much of those are in legally imposed tariffs that predate Trump's return to office.

Why does this matter?

• It's catastrophically stupid and harmful to impose illegal taxes and even a remotely competent administration would never have done this.   

• Courts are not responsible for the acts of people who break the law. Lawbreakers are. 

• No matter how angry or surprised it makes him, Trump is not the whole of the government and he is not above its laws.