KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics in Kansas, Missouri and at the local level. Share your story idea with Charlie.
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Excitement about tariffs turned to concern in a matter of hours for a coffee shop owner in Olathe, Kansas.
Early Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority to implement many of the tariffs in place on imports from foreign countries.
Karen Morris, who owns Sweet Tee’s Coffee Shop, had expressed concern about tariffs during a small business roundtable event with Congresswoman Sharice Davids Wednesday.
Morris said the price of cocoa powder more than doubled because of tariffs. So she felt relief, at least temporarily, on Friday morning.
“I’m happy to see it happen because I don’t think it was best for small businesses in a lot of ways,” she admitted.
Hours later, President Trump announced he’s using a different law to implement a new 10 percent global tariff.
“Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones the court incorrectly rejected,” he said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.
Trump touted how tariffs had collected billions of dollars since he implemented them last year.
Morris doesn’t know how the back and forth will impact her business. She’s doing everything she can to prevent raising prices for customers.
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