Australian economist and professor Justin Wolfers issued a dire warning this weekend that however the Supreme Court ends up ruling on the White House’s tariff policy, mass “mayhem” was likely to follow.

“If – as I expect – the Trump tariffs are ruled illegal, we're going to move from eight months of unconstitutional illegal tariff turmoil to a whole new set of tariff turmoil,” Wolfers said, appearing on journalist Molly Jong-Fast’s show “Fast Politics” on Saturday.

“It'll be this crazy, crazy soap opera in which the president tries to run an economy by pretending he – and he alone – can move the pieces around the global economy chessboard.”

The Supreme Court is currently weighing in on the president’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs. Lawyers for the Trump administration say the president has such authority under a 1977 law that permits his office to impose tariffs in response to emergencies – which President Donald Trump has said is the United States’ trade deficits with other countries.

Justices have expressed skepticism, however, at the Trump administration’s case for the tariffs, giving rise to increasingly panicked attacks on the court from the president, who warned the United States could be “reduced to almost Third World status” if the court rules against him.

If the court sides with Trump on the tariffs, Wolfers warned that the “headaches” from the trade policy would persist; if the court rules against Trump, then an entirely different type of “mayhem” would likely unfold, he warned.

“If you think you've seen mayhem, strap in: there's plenty more ahead!” Wolfers said.

Wolfers also railed into the Trump administration’s team of economists, many of whom helped shape Trump’s sweeping tariff policy.

“What we have in the current White House is you can take any ranking of the horsepower of economists; there is no one in the White House who is in America's 10,000-best economists,” Wolfers said.

“That's not an exaggeration, it's a qualitative statement. They've gone dragging through the gutter, stupid is as stupid does. It's not a well-advised White House... Maybe incompetence is part of the strategy.”