Introduction：

① On November 26, 2025, local time, the Office of the United States Trade Representative announced the extension of 178 exemption provisions until November 10, 2026.

② On November 24, 2025, local time, U.S. President Trump planned to cut food taxes and distribute $2,000 checks to each person with an income below $100,000. This was strongly opposed by Congress, but President Trump intends to go his own way and bypass Congress to distribute the money directly.

③ On November 22, 2025, local time, it was reported that the Trump administration is secretly preparing a backup plan to quickly adopt alternative measures to continue imposing tariffs if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its primary tariff authority.

The following is the main text.

I. 178 Exemptions Extended Officially

These 178 exemption provisions were originally scheduled to expire on November 29, 2025, and have now been extended until November 10, 2026.

These exemptions cover items including equipment used for solar product manufacturing, as well as various industrial and medical supplies.

Specifically, they cover 14 categories of products related to solar manufacturing equipment, as well as 164 categories of industrial and medical products—such as electric motors, blood pressure monitoring equipment, pump components, automotive air compressors, and printed circuit boards.

In short, this means that for the above-mentioned Chinese export goods that meet the exemption list, entry into the United States before November 10, 2026, will be temporarily exempt from additional tariffs imposed under "Section 301"—this is good news for Chinese exporters engaged in cross-border trade and exporting to the United States.

II. Trump to Give Money to Americans?

Facing political pressure from continuously declining approval ratings and to address public dissatisfaction with rising living costs, Trump proposed two measures: ① cutting food tariffs and ② distributing $2,000 checks to each American with an annual income below $100,000 from the over $200 billion in tariff revenue already collected.

However, according to calculations by the Yale Budget Lab, the cost of this plan is as high as $450 billion, which is twice the expected tariff revenue for 2026 (approximately $225 billion).

This means that even if all tariff revenue is used to distribute checks, there is still a huge funding gap that needs to be filled, which will further worsen the U.S. fiscal deficit.

Sure enough, once this plan was announced, it was strongly opposed by Republican members of Congress, who advocate using tariff revenue to reduce the federal deficit rather than distributing cash checks.

This is also correct, as the U.S. fiscal situation is already precarious, and tariff revenue at least partially compensates for the fiscal gap caused by the massive tax cuts and continued profligate spending implemented during Trump's term.

Another reason is that these members of Congress no longer have illusions about Trump's political prospects and are beginning to make long-term plans for their own political careers.

Of course, Trump doesn't care about these concerns; he plans to bypass Congress and distribute these checks directly through presidential orders.

If the president can impose tariffs and use the revenue to distribute cash checks without congressional approval, then the role of Congress and the courts as checks and balances on executive power will "become increasingly irrelevant."

This practice not only violates the constitutional principle of separation of powers but will also set a dangerous precedent. Future presidents may invoke this precedent to further expand executive power, ultimately leading to the erosion of America's democratic system.

III. Latest Developments in Trump Tariff Case

According to informed U.S. officials, the "Plan B" being studied by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Office of the United States Trade Representative includes invoking Sections 301 and 122 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, which grant the president unilateral taxation authority.

For the U.S. government, the best outcome would be to win the current lawsuit directly. Trump has repeatedly called on the justices to uphold his tariffs implemented based on an "economic emergency."

However, U.S. courts previously ruled that Trump had no authority to invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on multiple countries, and the Trump administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Currently, among the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, there are six conservative justices and three liberal justices. However, at the hearing held on November 5, not only did the three liberal justices question Trump's tariff policy, but at least three conservative justices also expressed doubts.

Trump stated:

"We are waiting for the ruling. We hope the result will be good, but if it's not, we will find a way—we always find a way."

Bloomberg believes that the Trump administration's so-called "Plan B" has already been used in some cases.

For example, the United States announced in July of this year that it would launch a "Section 301 investigation" against Brazil. Trump used the same tactics against some Chinese goods during his first term. However, imposing taxes based on "Section 301" requires a lengthy investigation process.

The Wall Street Journal reported in October of this year that the Trump administration is quietly relaxing tariff policies and has already exempted dozens of goods from tariffs. Trump stated that after reaching trade agreements with other countries, exemptions may be implemented for hundreds of goods such as agricultural products and aircraft parts. These actions also indicate that the U.S. government is preparing for a possible loss in court.

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