U.S. President Donald Trump said he will not attend the Supreme Court hearing this week over the legality of his global tariffs regime, despite earlier suggesting he felt an “obligation” to witness the arguments in person.

“I don’t want to call a lot of attention to me,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday as he returned to Washington from his Mar-a-Lago estate. “It’s not about me — it’s about our country.”

The court is set to hear on Wednesday Trump’s appeal of a lower court ruling that found portions of his “Liberation Day” tariffs exceeded presidential emergency powers to regulate imports.

Calling the upcoming decision “one of the most important in the history of the country,” Trump defended his tariff policies as essential to U.S. national security. “If we don’t have tariffs, we don’t have national security,” he said. “The rest of the world has used tariffs against us for years and taken advantage of us.”

Had Trump attended, he would have been the first sitting U.S. president in history to be present for Supreme Court oral arguments.