President Donald Trump has declared an unprecedented number of national emergencies. He's used them to wage a trade war, deport people, and speed up oil drilling. And more could be coming. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn and Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast. President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office. Photo by Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Plenty of people have been caught up in President Trump's emergency declarations. The most high profile are undocumented immigrants. But there's also Victor Owen Schwartz, who imports wine. Georgina Terry, who sells bikes for independent women. Why pay me to fix a flat tire when you can figure it out on your own? David Levi, who makes kicky little musical toys like a banana keyboard.
and Dan Pastore, who sells fishing gear. This week, they're all in court suing President Trump because his tariffs hurt their businesses. Trump says he can unilaterally levy tariffs because he has declared an emergency. The court is going to decide whether that's legal.
It is possibly the biggest self-inflicted economic blow that the United States has done to itself in my lifetime. And the courts could just make that all go away. So, you know, that's exciting.
That's ahead on Today Explained.
Support for the show comes from Yonder. There's a certain time and place for you to be checking your phone. And the classroom probably isn't one of them. Shouldn't school classrooms have, at the very least, the level of focus a stand-up comedian would demand of their audience? Yonder says they are committed to fostering phone-free schools. Learn more at overyonder.com.
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We used to have big ideals and dreams when we were still in university. We wrote these beautiful application essays about how we were going to fix tax avoidance and tax evasion, how we're going to tackle global hunger and work at the United Nations. And look at us. What has happened?
What has happened? This week on The Grey Area, we're talking about our moral ambition. Where did it go and what we can do to get it back. New episodes of The Grey Area drop on Mondays. Available everywhere. This is Today Explained.
Ian Millhiser covers the Supreme Court for Vox, and he has written two books about the Supremes. All right, Ian, so this week there is a small court hearing a very big case. Are President Trump's tariffs legal? Tell us what's going on.
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