(This is a sequel to yesterday’s “The Supreme Court Finally Tells Donald Trump ‘No’.”)

This morning on Face the Nation, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer tried to convince us that when President Trump said on Friday that the Supreme Court has been “swayed by foreign influences,” he meant that foreign governments and foreign-owned companies hoped the Court would rule against the Trump IEEPA tariffs, and that the Court did so. That was the “influence” the president was decrying.

What a load of crap.

Indeed, the only part of today’s interview that was even more disingenuous was, before repeating that absurd twist on “foreign influence,” Greer said “I don’t speak for the president.” Think about that for a moment: Jamieson Greer is the United States Trade Representative, nominated by the president in November 2024 and confirmed by the Senate on February 27, 2025. The web site of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (https://ustr.gov/about-us/about-ustr) says “The head of USTR is the U.S. Trade Representative, a Cabinet member who serves as the president’s principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on trade issues.” His job is to be the spokesperson for the president on trade issues, but he wasn’t speaking for the president when he tried to tell us the president only meant that the Supreme Court ruled on an issue that foreign powers favored, not that they were beholden to any foreign influences.

The message from the administration is fairly clear: “Don’t pay attention to what the president said yesterday. And there’s no reason to pay attention to what I—as his spokesperson—am telling you he meant. Just be outraged along with us that nobody can see the president is right about everything.” Oy.