Trump Trade: 24 states sue President to block latest round of tariffs

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.

STATES SUE TRUMP: 

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and 23 other states filed a lawsuit to block President Trump’s “latest efforts to impose illegal tariffs on American consumers and businesses.” Rayfield said in a statement: “For more than a year, President Trump has inflicted chaos on the American economy by imposing tariffs without the legal authority to do so. Initially, the President claimed that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act allowed him to impose tariffs of any amount, on any product, from any country, for any length of time. Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court rejected that argument, concluding that the IEEPA tariffs were unlawful. Rather than accepting that loss in court, President Trump immediately turned to a separate law that has never been used before-Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974-and announced 15 percent tariffs on most products worldwide, seemingly to address trade deficits. But Section 122 does not apply. That law authorizes tariffs in limited circumstances, including when there are ‘large and serious balance-of-payments deficits.’ Notably, a trade deficit is not a balance-of-payment deficit, meaning that once again the President is acting unlawfully.”

AI CHIP SHIPMENTS: 

White House officials have drafted regulations that would restrict AI chip shipments to anywhere in the world without American approval, Mackenzie Hawkins of Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The proposed regulations would require companies to seek U.S. permission for virtually all exports of AI accelerators from companies like Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD), an expansion of curbs that currently cover around 40 countries, sources tell Bloomberg.

MEETING WITH DEFENSE COMPANIES: 

CBS News’ Senior White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang reported on X, “President Trump and Secretary Hegseth will meet with the CEOs of defense companies today at the White House. Although expediting weapons production is a major issue amid the war in Iran, @PressSec points out this meeting has been on the books for weeks” Publicly traded defense contractors include BAE Systems (BAESY), Boeing (BA), GE Aerospace (GE), General Dynamics (GD), HII (HII), L3Harris Technologies (LHX), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOC) and RTX (RTX).

U.S. COULD INVOKE DPA: 

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg that using the Defense Production Act, which gives the president broad powers over domestic industry, is “absolutely” under deliberation to ease permitting for Sable Offshore’s (SOC) contested plans to drill oil of the coast of California.

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Originally Posted March 6, 2026 – Trump Trade: 24 states sue President to block latest round of tariffs