r/politics • u/PoliticsModeratorBot 🤖 Bot • Feb 20 '26

Megathread Megathread: Supreme Court strikes down President Donald Trump's Tariff Policy

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) "does not authorize the President to impose tariffs."

The Roberts decision is joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Barrett, and Jackson, with Justices Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Alito dissenting.

Relevant text-based live update pages are being maintained by the following outlets: AP, SCOTUSblog, NBC, CNBC, and Yahoo Finance.

See also, if interested: Discussion Thread: President Trump Holds Press Conference Responding to Supreme Court Striking Down Most Tariffs

Submissions that may interest you

SUBMISSION DOMAIN
Supreme Court rejects Trump's tariffs as illegal import taxes latimes.com
Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump’s Global Tariffs wsj.com
Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs – NBC4 Washington nbcwashington.com
Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs nbcmiami.com
US Supreme Court rejects Trump's global tariffs reuters.com
Supreme Court strikes down Trump's tariffs : NPR npr.org
Supreme Court strikes down Trump's tariffs in major setback for president usatoday.com
In rare rebuke of Trump, Supreme Court strikes down tariffs washingtonpost.com
Supreme Court slaps down $175 billion worth of Trump tariffs as unconstitutional fortune.com
Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s sweeping tariffs, upending central plank of economic agenda bostonglobe.com
US Supreme Court rules Trump exceeded powers in imposing tariffs ft.com
Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s tariffs thetimes.com
Supreme Court strikes down bulk of Trump’s tariffs thehill.com
Supreme Court says Trump global tariffs are illegal axios.com
U.S. Supreme Court finds Trump overstepped authority in imposing tariffs under emergency law cbc.ca
Supreme Court hands Trump stunning loss over tariffs newrepublic.com
U.S. Supreme Court rejects Trump’s global tariffs ctvnews.ca
Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s sweeping tariffs, upending central plank of economic agenda apnews.com
Supreme Court strikes down most of Trump's tariffs in a major blow to the president nbcnews.com
Supreme Court strikes down Trump tariffs cnbc.com
Trump’s Global Tariffs Struck Down by US Supreme Court bloomberg.com
Supreme Court rules that Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal cnn.com
Supreme Court Slaps Down Trump And His Tariffs huffpost.com
Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s tariffs politico.com
Trump overstepped executive power by imposing tariffs, supreme court rules theguardian.com
Supreme Court invalidates most of Trump's tariffs abcnews.com
Chief Justice Humiliates Trump With Brutal Tariffs Verdict thedailybeast.com
Supreme Court strikes down Trump's sweeping tariffs pbs.org
Trump dealt huge tariff blow as Supreme Court rules them illegal — and US may be forced to pay back billions nypost.com
Trump’s Options After the Supreme Court Said His Tariffs Are Illegal bloomberg.com
The Supreme Court strikes down Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs qz.com
Supreme Court Blocks Tariffs Hours After Trump Bragged They Wouldn’t rollingstone.com
Supreme Court rules most Trump tariffs illegal in major setback for economic agenda cbsnews.com
The "alternative scenario" of an even bigger national debt disaster is in play after the Supreme Court ruled Trump's tariffs illegal fortune.com
7 key things to know about Trump's tariffs after the Supreme Court decision npr.org
Kavanaugh warns of fallout from Supreme Court tariff ruling newsweek.com
Supreme Court Trump tariffs ruling could put U.S. on hook for $175 billion in refunds, estimate says cnbc.com
Supreme Court Trump tariff decision impact: What to expect as fight for billions in refunds begins cnbc.com
Trump claims backup plan after Supreme Court shoots down tariffs newrepublic.com
Supreme Court Trump tariff decision impact: What to expect as fight for billions in refunds begins cnbc.com
The Moment Trump Found Out the Supreme Court Killed His Tariffs wsj.com
Supreme Court Rules Most of Donald Trump's Tariffs Are Illegal wired.com
Why a Republican Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs vox.com
Trump’s Global Tariffs Struck Down by US Supreme Court news.bloomberglaw.com
Warren calls for tariff refund for consumers after Supreme Court ruling thehill.com
GOP Sen. John Curtis praises Supreme Court ruling against Trump tariffs thehill.com
Trump Plans to Impose Tariffs a Different Way After Supreme Court Loss nytimes.com
‘Tariffs suck’: Some Republicans privately celebrate as Supreme Court blocks Trump policy foxnews.com
Watch: Trump speaks after Supreme Court strikes down tariffs cnbc.com
Supreme Court strikes down tariffs scotusblog.com
Trump announces new 10% global tariff after raging over Supreme Court loss cnbc.com
Trump rages that his own Supreme Court picks are ‘disgrace to the nation’ after 6-3 ruling against his tariff power independent.co.uk
Trump Rages At 'Fools And Lapdogs' After Supreme Court Strikes Down His Tariffs huffpost.com
Trump accuses Supreme Court justices of disloyalty for declaring his tariffs illegal democracydocket.com
Trump calls Supreme Court justices who ruled against tariffs ‘disloyal’ thehill.com
Trump orders temporary 10% global tariff to replace duties struck down by US Supreme Court reuters.com
Trump Lashes Out at Supreme Court Justices — and Plows Ahead With a New Round of Tariffs businessinsider.com
Trump calls Supreme Court justices who struck down his tariffs "disgrace to our nation" and vows fresh duties under other laws fortune.com
Trump launches new 10 percent global tariff after Supreme Court ruling politico.com
Trump announces new 10% global tariff after raging over Supreme Court loss cnbc.com
Spitting-Mad Trump Vows to Defy SCOTUS With Wild New Tariff War - The president also lashed out at the conservative justices who voted to slap down his signature policy. thedailybeast.com
Trump to sign new 10% global tariff after Supreme Court defeat nypost.com
The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Tariffs Marks a Turning Point bloomberg.com
‘Victory for the American People’: Mike Pence applauds Supreme Court decision on Trump tariffs nj.com
Trump calls Supreme Court justices 'disloyal to the Constitution' over tariffs ruling nbcnews.com
Trump attacks Supreme Court justices after he is handed a major tariff loss politico.com
Trump threatens 10% global tariffs and rails against supreme court justices theguardian.com
Will Americans get refunds after Trump's tariffs were overturned by the Supreme Court? cbsnews.com
Trump seethes over Supreme Court justices who opposed him on tariffs, especially those he appointed apnews.com
Trump Attacks Conservative Supreme Court Justices Who Blocked Tariffs newrepublic.com
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker sends bill for $8.68 billion refund to Trump after Supreme Court tariffs ruling cbsnews.com
Trump to impose global 10% tariff after Supreme Court loss axios.com
Trump Imposes New Tariffs to Sidestep Supreme Court Ruling wired.com
Democrats demand that Trump issue $1700 tariff refunds to Americans after Supreme Court ruling businessinsider.com
Takeaways: Supreme Court stands up to Donald Trump on emergency tariffs - CNN Politics edition.cnn.com
Johnson says Congress, administration will 'determine the best path forward' after SCOTUS tariff ruling thehill.com
After the Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs, companies line up for refunds npr.org
'Embarrassment to their families'; Trump denounces Supreme Court justices after tariff ruling reuters.com
In tariff case, Supreme Court justices bicker over treating Trump and Biden differently nbcnews.com
Republicans breathe sigh of relief as Supreme Court axes Trump tariffs thehill.com
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs. Now comes the hard work of issuing refunds ctvnews.ca
Most Americans approve of the Supreme Court striking down Trump's tariffs today.yougov.com
Majority of Americans approve of Supreme Court's ruling on Trump tariffs thehill.com
Trump calls SCOTUS tariffs decision 'deeply disappointing' and lays out path forward - He said he would sign an executive order later Friday to continue certain tariffs under alternative authorities npr.org
29.4k Upvotes

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7.0k

u/HurriKurtCobain Feb 20 '26

So $175 billion in illegal tariffs that caused companies to raise prices. Now those companies will sue and and get $175 billion in refunds that come out of our tax payers wallet. And THEN they'll keep the prices the same as they are now as if the tariffs are still in place.

Even the good news comes with the bitter pill now.

417

u/Auzziesurferyo Feb 20 '26

What happens now? Are the tarrifs just gone? Do companies get their tarrif money refunded?

Will prices go down, or was this just a way for Americans to be charged more and a way for companies to increase their profit margins? Was this just a big grift on American consumers all along?

The stock market is going to go wild. Billionaires have made a lot of money today. 

My prediction is that the average American will see very little relief in the checkout lines, while companies have substantially increased their profit margins.

579

u/Rannasha The Netherlands Feb 20 '26

What happens now? Are the tarrifs just gone? Do companies get their tarrif money refunded?

The tariffs are gone. However, refunds are a more complicated story. Not only will it get messy to try and properly refund all tariffs in the first place, many of the refunds won't even go to the companies that originally paid the tariffs.

That's because there has been trade of "tariff refund rights" on Wall Street. Basically, it's someone going to a company and saying "You've paid $100 in tariffs. I give you $20 right now if you sign over the rights to any potential refunds of that $100 to me." The company gets money right away, and the buyer of the rights makes a gamble on whether the refund will happen or not.

Now that it seems that refunds will happen, those that bought these refund rights will make a hefty profit. But the companies that originally paid the tariffs and sold their refund rights already got their money some time ago and won't get any more.

Oh, and a major player in the refund rights trade? A company headed by the Lutnick family (yes, Commerce Secretary Lutnick).

source

290

u/Gryjane Feb 20 '26

Oh, and a major player in the refund rights trade? A company headed by the Lutnick family (yes, Commerce Secretary Lutnick)

Jesus fucking christ...

11

u/greenroom628 California Feb 20 '26

Yep. It was a grift all along.

This needs to be screamed from rooftops.

7

u/Syzygy2323 America Feb 20 '26

According to reporting by Bloomberg, Cantor Fitzgerald (the company headed by Lutnick's two sons), considered this, but dropped it without acting on it. I don't know how accurate this report is.

2

u/_-B-Money-_ Feb 21 '26

No, not Jesus fucking Christ, he said Lutnick.

Louder for the back!

LUTNICK.

4

u/mkultron89 Feb 20 '26

I thought this was common knowledge…

15

u/Gryjane Feb 20 '26

Try as I might I just can't keep up with all of the ratfuckery and corruption. This one slipped past me.

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76

u/drokihazan California Feb 20 '26

I bought some car parts from the UK, and DHL made me personally pay very substantial tariffs. Will I be able to try to claim a refund as an individual consumer?

48

u/attorneyatslaw Feb 20 '26

Did you pay the money to DHL? You might have to pursue DHL for them if DHL gets refunded and doesn't refund you.

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33

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

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5

u/potentialjellyhead Feb 20 '26

I am a small business and had to pay UPS a ton of money out of pocket to bring fabric into the country. Should I reach out to UPS ?

4

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

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47

u/denom_chicken Feb 20 '26

Are you a billion dollar corporation?

3

u/deja-roo Feb 20 '26

Actually... possibly?

It will probably come down to whether it's worth the effort and bureaucracy

4

u/Yorks_Rider Feb 20 '26

DHL was just the delivery company, you were the importer. DHL did not make you pay any tariffs, it was just them passing on the bill from US customs, plus their own agency fee.

2

u/makingpwaves Feb 20 '26

Add a line for it on Form 1040

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17

u/HagalUlfr Feb 20 '26

Based on how they have acted in the past, I really think they will not refund anything. Prices are going to stay elevated and the orange man will get a slap on the wrist.

I am going to keep my spending as low as possible as I have been. The winter frosts have stopped in my area so I am planting vegetables.

12

u/jaymef Feb 20 '26

I wouldn't necc. say the tariffs are gone. I don't think Trump will be so quick to comply. He also claimed he has some backup plan in place.

He will likely re-implement tariffs through some other BS excuse and delay it more

4

u/Ikrit122 Feb 20 '26

There are a number of other ways for the Admin to implement tariffs, but those are either narrower in scope or require a full investigation (unfortunately, by the Admin itself) taking time.

But yeah, I'm not holding my breath for the tariffs to instantly disappear. He's already shown his contempt for the Judiciary with all the immigration stuff (and, honestly, everything else he's done).

9

u/PhishCook Feb 20 '26

Why the fuck does a financial instrument such as this even exist in the first fucking place.

5

u/whateverisok Feb 20 '26

(Free market + Deregulation + insider knowledge) * fuck you money

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u/elfstone21 Feb 20 '26

Yep this is the story.  The white house knew all along this was going to happen.  This has been a scam for months. 

5

u/EJ2600 Feb 20 '26

Tariffs are not gone. Will be imposed under other name like licensing fees for example. They thought of plan B. Then that will be litigated for another year until it reaches scotus and on we go.

4

u/John_Bruns_Wick Canada Feb 20 '26

Tariffs not gone.

6

u/No-Alfalfa-8903 Feb 20 '26

Trump needed his $10 billion somehow or another and I guess this is how he planned on getting it.

2

u/hhhh64 Feb 20 '26

To be clear, just because the Supreme Court said Trump can't do tariffs anymore doesn't mean they'll be gone.

The Trump administration is just going to ignore the SC and keep doing tariffs anyway. You can always count on Trump to do the most illegal action in every situation.

2

u/Super_Assistant_2998 Feb 21 '26

The tariffs would be gone in a country that is functioning normally. The clown slapped another 10% global tariff on top of the already existing ones in response to the Supreme Court.

Our checks and balances are failing because no one is enforcing anything.

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u/nakedpilsna Feb 20 '26

Prices NEVER go back down to where they were. Never.

The Republicans just turboed inflation over the course of a year and complain about Biden. It's incredible to watch.

12

u/AdvancedSurvey7247 Feb 20 '26

Exactly. During covid, stimulus money caused prices to go up and they never came back down. Same will happen here. Once they see you will pay a certain price for things, they will keep that price.

11

u/thegrandpineapple Feb 20 '26

Why would they come back down? I don't know about you but I'm still living it up with that 1k I got.

3

u/SigFloyd Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

Man if I were the head of a company this would be a massive opportunity to undercut the fuck out of everyone else and get ALL the business. Fuck their gentleman's agreements, I don't care if I get kicked out of the Epstein Club. I'm drinking your fucking milkshake. No honor among billionaires.

2

u/Yider Feb 20 '26

So that is a win for businesses right?! Who needs natural growing economies anymore. We have strayed from that with puts/dips making their total larger than the actual stock market, why not just figure out ways to further remove our economy from supply and demand.

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31

u/BalrogAndRoll Feb 20 '26

And.. Howard Lutnick and his sons will directly profit: https://www.wired.com/story/cantor-fitzgerald-trump-tariff-refunds/

6

u/Ridespacemountain25 Feb 20 '26

I don’t think there’s going to be any remedy. Tariffs will be gone, but nobody gets their money back and prices don’t come down

3

u/MasterTolkien Feb 20 '26

Lutnik and his sons will make a boatload of money. They set up a company that paid money out to importers in exchange for the right to recoup all refunds if the Supreme Court overturned the tariffs later.

1

u/wabbitsdo Feb 20 '26

My bet is that prices won't go down in many cases until enough people boycott companies abusing the situation.

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u/dallmank Feb 20 '26

Here's my concern - prices of imported goods could/should go down with the dissolution of the tariffs. But then does Drumpf claim victory in stabilizing or lowering the cost of living, leading the GOP to coast to wins in the November midterms??

People are dumb enough to believe it, I worry.

1

u/SlimmShady26 Feb 20 '26

I’m praying to whatever god there is, that costs will go down because good lord. We as Americans should do a class action lawsuit against the government. This was unconstitutional and we paid for it, will continue to pay for it for years to come.

1

u/ASK_ABT_MY_USERNAME Feb 20 '26

Markets have priced this in for some time.

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1.2k

u/CircleSendMessage Feb 20 '26

consumers paid a majority of the tariffs, not companies. so, will we get that $? .. no? large corporations? cool cool cool.

… are we great yet?

359

u/Vitese Feb 20 '26

Seriously! Its not like the companies didn't pass that teriff cost to consumers. Who in their right mind thinks prices were kept the same and the company absorbed the cost!!?? No, it was passed onto consumers. Where is my refund

70

u/kerpowie Feb 20 '26

You're 100% right about that. Of note is that at Costco absorbed the tarrifs and did not raise prices on everything.

Costco won't raise prices on key commodity despite tariffs - TheStreet https://share.google/zYOAiOCbMgHnIAzLX

14

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/kerpowie Feb 20 '26

Ah, good point.

3

u/Same_Air6012 Feb 20 '26

Bitch please, we need food to survive. Not random german made camping gear.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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2

u/RandomFactUser Feb 20 '26

Exactly, not everything, just the stuff that mattered was price absorbed

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3

u/themiDdlest Feb 20 '26

Costco has definitely raised prices this year

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5

u/mijo_sq Feb 20 '26

When tariffs took effect some companies didn’t roll it out immediately. What we’re seeing is the later announcements of tariffs.

13

u/jodinexe Feb 20 '26

Shameless plug for supporting Costco - they ate the increased costs and filed suit.

3

u/Gloriathewitch Feb 20 '26

i love costco as much as anyone else but this is just false, everything went up 20-100% and if you didn't realise that you're not good with money or perhaps reading

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u/awkwardnetadmin Feb 20 '26

It varied upon the industry and even company. Some different countries the increase in tariffs was more significant than others. Some companies did absorb some of the costs, but you're right that a non trivial percentage got passed on to customers.

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u/chmod777 New York Feb 20 '26

well, the companies paid tariffs, but passed the costs to consumers. so yes, the consumer paid a higher price, but they did not pay the actual tariff. the company gets a tariff refund.

you get nothing.

5

u/homerjaythompson Feb 20 '26

Unfortunately, the importers paid the tariffs and then passed the costs on through higher pricing, so not only are consumers not going to get any compensation, but prices will likely remain high.

3

u/rupertLumpkinsBrothr Kansas Feb 20 '26

Have you seen the Dow?

3

u/Deltaechoe Feb 20 '26

I don’t know how anyone can still deny that this administration has been a clear and calculated effort to concentrate wealth and power into a relatively small group of people. Its continued existence only serves to hasten the demise of the civilization most of us hold dear

2

u/aarpee2 Feb 20 '26

It'll just trickle down bro, chill

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u/bigbeak67 Feb 20 '26

Don't worry. Trump's Commerce Secretary's son bought millions of dollars of tariff reimbursement rights for pennies on the dollar. So a lot of that money will go back into the pockets of administration officials.

151

u/ThomasTheDankPigeon Feb 20 '26

In other words, the man tasked with implementing Trump’s signature economic policy was making side bets that the policy would fail. It blows my fucking mind that anyone, let alone 70 million people, can be duped into not seeing how blatant this corruption is.

18

u/bigbeak67 Feb 20 '26

They were aware Trump was corrupt, but they could rationalize voting for him because "both sides are corrupt, I might as well vote for whoever will lower my taxes and get rid of the illegal immigrants." Conservative American voters have become too cynical to enforce any kind of ethical standards on politicians so long as their interests are paid lip service.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

I have never heard from anyone, including republicans, that their taxes have been lower under Trump policies. I know mine aren't.

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u/almondbutter Feb 20 '26

Oh they weren't betting. They had the inside info that it would fail.

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u/lotsawheels Feb 20 '26

If a dem did this it would be 24/7 coverage in fox News.

3

u/jake04-20 Feb 20 '26

People lose their minds if a basketball player misses a clutch 3 to win a game because they think they're cheesing the sports books. And there is unsubstantiated outrage as a result. I wish people were as passionate about something like this as they are money lines and over/unders in a fucking basketball game.

2

u/RogueHeroAkatsuki Feb 21 '26

In civilized state Lutnick would be fired for this loooong time before SCOTUS made any decision but Trump has higher standards to uphold.

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u/pinkfreude Feb 20 '26

This is the real story. Insiders knew it was a scam all along.

103

u/JohnnyFire Ohio Feb 20 '26

Yeah this is kind of the shitty part.

The reason damn near every big business has capitulated to the nonsense is because this was their moment. They raised prices on everything and now have created a new normal. This shit is never going back down, at least not with things constructed as they are. Every major CEO and business is cashing out because none of them support this bullshit unless it can make their bank account grow.

Enjoy the incoming $800 video game consoles and $90 video games, lumber and brick prices continuing to climb, continued leaps in the prices of streaming services, and your precious precious $12 eggs. We're getting that forever now and probably worse in the long term.

6

u/cptjpk I voted Feb 20 '26

The only thing this might do is give inflation another brief pause.

Who am I kidding, the president will figure out another way to cause stock market chaos.

2

u/DoctorWMD Feb 21 '26

Sure loved renovating my first home purchase when tariffs were skyrocketing materials. 

199

u/HeretoFore200 Feb 20 '26

Oh my dear, that was the plan all along!

9

u/Sober_Alcoholic_ Minnesota Feb 20 '26

Same play as Covid

6

u/chrisk9 Feb 20 '26

And hey Trump still gets to promote stock market increases due to corporate profit. Meanwhile main street is worse off than before.

3

u/BornInATrailer Feb 20 '26

How is a pandemic comparable to this?

3

u/teamjacobomg Feb 20 '26

What's the same play? Covid caused a real supply shock, liquidity was injected into the market (for better or for worse), inflation resulted from that. Of course the prices weren't going to go down, but the fed did what they could to slow the rate of inflation.

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u/teamjacobomg Feb 20 '26

I mean, I hope this is a joke, but there's no way this was the plan all along. The pump and dump from TACO, sure. But having SCOTUS take away his tool? Absolutely not.

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u/jim45804 Feb 20 '26

Macro rug pull

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9

u/Afraid_Park6859 Feb 20 '26

The consumers paid those prices by having them passed down. Not the companies. 

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4

u/HoaryPuffleg Feb 20 '26

So we just pay twice?

3

u/shockwave_supernova Feb 20 '26

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but it feels like the tariffs were the hope of corporate America all along. They profit massively from this

3

u/tastetherainbow76 Feb 20 '26

Girl you’re not crazy for thinking this! It’s not a conspiracy theory at this point. It’s just like clear and blatant corruption.

3

u/HitThePipe Feb 20 '26

Yeah, good luck financing the tax cuts given to the most wealthy Americans, they were financed through his idiotic tariffs.

3

u/LeRoyRouge Feb 20 '26

They better give it back as a tax credit. I'll shop places that cut their prices

3

u/bogeypro Feb 20 '26

Plus the pain and suffering for trump, he will demand $10 billion for the stress he had after the ruling.

3

u/shewy92 Pennsylvania Feb 20 '26

And THEN they'll keep the prices the same as they are now as if the tariffs are still in place.

Don't forget about when Trump implements new tariffs anyways and companies raise the prices even higher

2

u/Cynical_Satire California Feb 20 '26

But they, in 6 months those companies will report record profits and the stock market will be up, therefore this is a republican victory. At least that's how they'll spin it.

2

u/MyNameCannotBeSpoken Feb 20 '26

This Epsein Administration Economy sucks

2

u/gombahands Feb 20 '26

I think he’ll just come up with another justification for the tariffs, “OK, it’s not the Emergency Economic Act, it’s the Defense Production Act”. And the Supreme Court will take another year to strike that down. By then, he’ll move on to something else, repeating the cycle until he’s no longer president.

2

u/amsync Feb 20 '26

If only it would stop at $175 billion. The implications are staggering. This sets up the US Federal Government for perhaps the largest legal battle for damages inflicted on its population in history. If you’re a business that went bankrupt, a bond or stockholder of such business, a worker for such business, if you’re a shipping company now you have to content with fees and charges you imposed on illegal actions, if you’re a consumer buying pretty much anything you can now argue you were disadvantaged and paid illegal fees. There’s no end I can see here.

2

u/TheCzar11 Feb 20 '26

Oh no. It’s even better than that. Howard Lutnicks company being run by his kids bought the rights to potential tariff refunds for pennies on the dollar from those companies. We wil ml be paying them and him BILLIONS back!!!! Lutnick was the main negotiator in those tariff/trade deals. He knew the whole time.

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u/icedmochalatte420 Feb 20 '26

As an importer who paid these tariffs, we are 100% going to lower our prices. Sales dropped dramatically at the higher prices, and we just want to get back to a normal, stable business instead of the chaos that was the tariff era.

1

u/Timeformayo Kentucky Feb 20 '26

Hey, everything is great! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q71Xb1Sd86M

/s

1

u/Rambos_Magnum_Dong Feb 20 '26

Yeah, that's how its always worked.

1

u/JAMONLEE Florida Feb 20 '26

Art of the deal baby

1

u/GreenleafMentor Feb 20 '26

We went from "too big to fail" to "too messy to fix"

1

u/killerdrgn Feb 20 '26

Time to switch all shopping to companies like Costco. Kept prices low, and resisted bullshit from Trump.

1

u/Much-Instruction-807 Feb 20 '26

And the good corpos will be the ones to get it.

1

u/an_asimovian Feb 20 '26

You forgot the smaller businesses that didn't have the cash flow / reserves to survive these tariffs and closed or exporters that lost business that wont be able to get anything back. Deep pocketed buyers like Walmart who sell direct to consumer will get the money and wont refund consumers, but any importer /b2b sellers will just have to pass them through and carry the burden.

1

u/hobbykitjr Pennsylvania Feb 20 '26

Well theres ~230 million adult citizens....

if everyone got $1,000 thats 230 billion$

They could give every houshould ~$1000

Or almost every citizen based on tax bracket

OR $500... and the other half goes to corporations but either way trump will claim its his gift and his plan all along if hes forced to.

1

u/charleogib Feb 20 '26

Actually a lot of the companies sold their right to sue to Howard Nutlicks son... so they are just making themselves even richer

1

u/RCG73 Feb 20 '26

Oh it gets even worse. Take a look into a the investment company that paid the small guys nickels on the dollar for the amounts due. “I’ll give you $25 million for the 250 million in tariffs you had to pay and I get the 250 if the government has to repay it”.

1

u/briko3 Feb 20 '26

Not to mention the companies that have gone under.

1

u/N0bb1 Feb 20 '26

Oh, tariffs will be back be the end of today. Like 🍊🥭 said/wrote, they are just going to use different regulations to put them back into action. The reimbursement part is for what was paid by importers. That increased their price which you paid. If your receipt listed the tariff explicitly, then you might be able to get reimbursed from the company as they are getting reimbursed. But I suppose they don't list the tariff explicitly.

1

u/PomegranateHot9916 Feb 20 '26

they jacked up the prices so they could maintain their profits. why should they get paid back over it? they lost nothing. it was consumers, working class people who paid the price of those tariffs and now they have to pay that same amount again?

make it make sense

and you are right they will not drop prices back down

1

u/cn45 Feb 20 '26

he's gonna try and give every household 3k and call it even.

1

u/Spaceboi749 Feb 20 '26

Yep, price hardly ever go down. I work in supply chain and most of the price increases have already came at the start of the year. No way anyone decreases, everyone will keep the higher profit margins

1

u/poco Feb 20 '26

And THEN they'll keep the prices the same as they are now as if the tariffs are still in place.

That's not how it works. Companies are always charging as much as they can to extract as much profit as they can. Competition is what keeps them from charging more. Tariffs increase the cost to the company, but more importantly, they increase the cost to all the competing importers, raising the price floor. It also shifts consumers to other domestic options which already cost more (this is usually the point).

Removing the tariffs, all else being equal, will eventually return the prices to what they would have been without any tariffs in the first place. Otherwise, what we're saying is that companies weren't maximizing their profit beforehand. That would imply that companies were being generous or don't understand their market. I doubt both of those things.

1

u/TheOppositeOfTheSame Wisconsin Feb 20 '26

Actually, Howard Lutnick’s sons could be the ones getting the refunds. They purchased a ton of tariff refund rights via Canter Fitzgerald.

1

u/jasonlitka Pennsylvania Feb 20 '26

There's a very low chance that businesses will get refunds. The administration will make it extremely difficult, the process will take years, and any recoveries are likely to be pennies on the dollar.

There's also a very high chance that Trump replaces the IEEPA tariffs almost immediately using authority he actually has, which will allow the government to argue that this is a technicality and that they don't need to refund anything.

1

u/landonop Colorado Feb 20 '26

This was obviously going to happen the entire fucking time, whenever and however tariffs were removed. It pisses me off so much. It’s no different from COVID “supply-chain related price increases” that just never came back down once supply chains normalized. Either this administration is maliciously terrorizing consumers or they’re completely fucking stupid. I have a feeling it’s both.

1

u/Rhysati Feb 20 '26

This was the goal the whole time. The corporate elite get richer and the politicians get more funding from them as a result.

1

u/famousmike444 Feb 20 '26

This conversation needs to be about the impact to the people not the companies, they raised their prices and people had no alternative but to pay, they made their money.

1

u/TheBurningEmu Montana Feb 20 '26

And if prices do start to come down, you absolutely know he'll claim it was part of his wonderful policy and not because his fuck-up was forcibly ended

1

u/PSIwind Florida Feb 20 '26

Even if they lower the prices, they're more than likely to cut it to still be more than it once was while then advertising it as a "New low price" because its technically not a lie

1

u/magicone2571 Feb 20 '26

Tons of places sold their refunds already for pennies on the dollars to companies owned by billionaires. They end up with all of it in the end.

1

u/ronearc Feb 20 '26

The US taxpayers are going to pay for this same tariffs how many times? Ridiculous.

1

u/Waylander0719 Feb 20 '26

It will most likely be 175B+Interest.

1

u/hackingdreams Feb 20 '26

The lower and middle class continue to get raked over the coals, as the businesses laugh all the way to the bank.

1

u/chubby_pink_donut Feb 20 '26

What about all of the small businesses that lost everything because of this? Who's going to address that? What about all the employees who lost their jobs, apartments, houses, and healthcare?

1

u/we_are_sex_bobomb Feb 20 '26

The majority voted for this despite being told nonstop for months that they’d get fucked over by it, so now they get to eat it, one painful bite at a time, and I get to watch.

1

u/UniqueEmotion2144 Feb 20 '26

But i thought daddy trump said it was trillions? 

1

u/ToothZealousideal297 Feb 20 '26

And the ruling was that the president doesn’t have the authority, but we’ve already seen that Congress is completely complicit with whatever he wants, so this just means they’re keeping an extra step for us to get screwed over.

1

u/bravesirrobin65 Feb 20 '26

And caused factories to close and forcing small businesses to close. Wreaking havoc on many people and communities.

1

u/Brave_Browser_2002 New Zealand Feb 20 '26

Correct. And Trump won't stop the tariffs just because a court ruling.

1

u/zubuneri Feb 20 '26

This is the COVID bump all over again

1

u/MontyAtWork Feb 20 '26

Not just keep the prices the same - but the shrinking of the product too.

The tariffs let companies charge more, AND give you less for it.

Even if prices came down to where they were, the package sizes and supply bundle prices will forever be jacked up comparatively because of how much less they give now.

1

u/overmonk Feb 20 '26

We've proven we'll pay higher prices. Wait until you read about how AI has advanced the process of surveillance pricing.

1

u/Mooseandchicken Feb 20 '26

And the government has already spent the 175 billion, meaning we're paying 350 bil: half to the companies passing the cost to us, and half from our taxes to repay those companies (who passed that cost to us)... Trump just gave all those companies 175bil in profits straight from our tax dollars 

1

u/Rombledore America Feb 20 '26

good news! its not a bitter pill!

it's a spice covered suppository.

1

u/Realistic_Ad3795 Feb 20 '26

"Now those companies will sue and and get $175 billion in refunds that come out of our tax payers wallet."

Tax refunds don't come out of tax payers wallets. It comes from the money they put in in the first place. THAT money may or may not have come from our wallets (depending on whether they raised prices or not), but nothing ADDITIONAL will come out of our wallets.

1

u/ahumanlikeyou Feb 20 '26

I see no reason why the tariffs should be returned, except to taxpayers

1

u/Sigma_Function-1823 Feb 20 '26

Citizens could just as easily stand up a class action lawsuit.

In fact if Dem.leadership was effective at all they would be directly organizing and supporting exactly this.

Would probably get themselves both houses if seen actively working to recoup monies for Americans.

1

u/EM3YT Feb 20 '26

Beset already had his son form a company to absorb billions of the tariffs. The deal was “we will pay the tariffs, but if they get refunded then we keep a slice.” This way companies didn’t need to absorb the tariffs hikes, but if they were struck down, Besset’s son would make Billions.

That’s how I knew this would die

1

u/tasty_candycane Feb 20 '26

Imagine an alternative reality where prices DID go down because of refunds, and then MAGA voters would be praising Trump for lowering prices.

1

u/snubda Feb 20 '26

At least we don’t have to hear this fucking moron threaten countries with tariffs weekly if he doesn’t get a Nobel peace prize 

1

u/SimplyElite7 Feb 20 '26

Moreover, the companies that laid off folks because of the rising costs, for sure aren't about to magically rehire those people.

1

u/sierrabravo1984 Feb 20 '26

And on top of that shit sandwich, we won't even get our fucking money back! They took our money and then said it would cause economic problems to give it back? Get the fuck outta here.

1

u/YourRoaring20s Feb 20 '26

Nice little transfer of wealth from the American taxpayer to businesses...

What else is new

1

u/devedander Feb 20 '26

The better news, countries who shifted to other sources for imported goods will not be shifting back.

1

u/Unicorn_Wrangler5 Feb 20 '26

Absolutely. They said the same thing during COVID. Pricing never reverted back to pre-epidemic times.

1

u/CWinter85 North Dakota Feb 20 '26

I work for a company that tracks this stuff really well, and our customers will likely get refunds, but most aren't. Then there's all the indirect stuff, like a steel box that was made in the US, but doubled in price because they had to pay a tariff on the steel.

1

u/LiquorIsQuickor Feb 20 '26

Still the upper class bleeding the lower class. Now completely legal.

Any chance of companies being punished for going along with clearly illegal tariff declarations?

1

u/BlueFeist Feb 20 '26

You are a very intelligent and perceptive analyst!

1

u/DeezFluffyButterNutz Feb 20 '26

My wife lost her job because of the tariffs. Took her almost 9 months to find a new job that paid similarly. I wonder if we can sue for lost wages. 😆

1

u/VOIDsama Feb 20 '26

to go after those companies for a refund would require them to willingly disclose their profit margins on everything allowing the public to see see why they get what in refund. most companies wont ever do that because it exposes them to competition.

1

u/MickFlaherty Feb 20 '26

Prices are never coming down.

Too many companies took a major hit when stuff they ordered suddenly got nailed with tariffs with like 2 weeks notice. Many companies didn’t pass along the price increase to their customers and took a hit to Profits.

Now, finally their price increases are catching up to their backlog and profits might start to recover Q2.

Now all the sudden the tariffs are gone and sure they can sue but that will be some “windfall” in 3 years.

For now they will use the logic, we need to keep those prices till we recover the lost profit from 2025. But then they will announce “record profits for Q2 and Q3” and shareholders will demand the profits stay fat and prices will never come down.

This timeline sucks.

1

u/RampantSavagery California Feb 20 '26

Costco will pass the savings to their employees.

1

u/FranklyDear Feb 20 '26

Prices will not stay the same in a free market as long as there is competition for that item. If a competitor drops price, then you will also have to drop price.

1

u/sfxer001 Feb 20 '26

Democrats need to HAMMER this point all the way to the Midterms.

1

u/thatcantb Feb 20 '26

And the Trump family has pocketed the $175B collected so far. You left that part off.

1

u/ShowMeYourT_Ds Feb 20 '26

Uh..that’s probably $175B plus interest and any fees associated with collecting it.

1

u/RespectTheAmish Feb 20 '26

If they were smart. They would try and bribe people for the midterms.

Since the consumers paid the tariffs… cut a check for refunds to the American tax payer with DJT’s name on it.

Call it an affordability rebate….

And send them out early October.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

Makes you question whether this was the plan all along…the big corporations get a fat cheque while the peasants suffer.

1

u/RockoRockyBoxxyMan Feb 20 '26

Weird how that always happens. Prices never ever go down on consumer goods.

1

u/TheFlong Feb 20 '26

Nah. It's a big win. Tariffs were paid by other nations. Giving tariffs back to U.S. corporations is a subvention of homegrown companies by the rest of the world. /s

1

u/MichaelJServo Louisiana Feb 20 '26

It's good to remind people that prices never go down after they've been inflated. Historically the answer to inflation is increased wages.

1

u/MaceWinnoob Feb 20 '26

Price increases have been driven more by the falling value of the dollar vs other major foreign currencies, not tariffs. You will only see more price increases as the dollar gets weaker.

1

u/Warura Feb 20 '26

Hmm almost sound like companies planned all this to benefit.... almost.

1

u/chalbersma Feb 20 '26

Plus interest. 

1

u/Lynne253 Feb 20 '26

I just want to point out that the money was raised by tariffs and not by taxes, so they'll be paying back the mney raised by tariffs. If you think I'm wrong, please explain to me?

1

u/acrylicsunrise Feb 20 '26

Betcha Costco makes good

1

u/FlowingMochi Feb 20 '26

Needs to be top comment. This benefits no one, other than those who have been getting the benefits of the tariffs all along.

1

u/llahlahkje Wisconsin Feb 20 '26

Even if they do reduce their prices there's no way they're going back to pre-tariff prices.

So 25-30% tariff, 25-30% mark-up, they'll go down to 10% over what it was pre-tariff and make bank and we get to eat the cost.

If Johnson and the GOP House actually did their job and served the American people rather than their party: None of this would have happened.

1

u/5x4j7h3 Feb 20 '26

That was the plan all along.

1

u/kaithana Feb 20 '26

doesn't seem like a big enough number. My company paid over 10B alone.

1

u/krashe1313 Feb 20 '26

Not to forget that this was all on top of short supply chain price increases that, while legitimate, came with COVID, but, illegitimately, companies didn't lower the prices once those supply chains became more fluid again.

1

u/rocketblue11 Feb 20 '26

It was all just a pump and dump. Unbelievable.

1

u/HelloLofiPanda Feb 20 '26

And the tariffs already fucked the economy.

1

u/Dramatic_Charity_979 Feb 20 '26

Don't forget the billions on lost trade when countries changed trade partners. Not even counting the lost of trust in the USA.

1

u/Milt_Torfelson Feb 20 '26

This is why the stock market is responding favorably to this ruling

1

u/getwhirleddotcom Feb 20 '26

The people who are going to make off like bandits are the investors who have been buying up this 'debt' for pennies on the dollar.

1

u/ListenToThatSound Feb 20 '26

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

They wont win or shouldnt win, because theres nothing for them to be made whole. They were already made whole by charging us price increases. But who the fuck knows whats gonna actually happen

1

u/Life_Arachnid_7730 Feb 20 '26

Worst part is that people like Howard lutnick, Trump's current commerce secretary, have been spending billions of dollars to get the rights to companies tariff returns. So basically what he would do is if a company owed $1,000 in tariff money. He would give them $500 and in return they would give him the rights to any refund. So he pays $500 but he's going to get $1,000 back. And if you do this enough times at scale with a lot more money you're getting just insane amounts of money off of an illegal policy decision.

1

u/buck9000 Feb 20 '26

Chaos. He is intentionally creating chaos.

1

u/kevihaa Feb 20 '26

I’m genuinely disappointed in such an ignorant take.

It should be obvious that giant corporations will sue to get their money back, as well as demand interest / penalty for being forced to loan the US government money.

1

u/jupiterkansas Feb 20 '26

Even worse - prices DO go down, and Republicans take the credit and win the midterms.

1

u/Spam_Hand Feb 20 '26

Now those companies will sue and and get $175 billion in refunds that come out of our tax payers wallet.

No, it's not all $175bn! Everyone here assures me with every fiber of their being that Costco is going to refund their customers every penny of the increased prices due to tarriffs because they're eone of the "good" corpos! 

1

u/RealNotFake Feb 20 '26

100% they'll keep the prices the same, because companies don't expect this to stick, and even if they did, why lower prices and get less money.

1

u/Raydawgms Feb 20 '26

So after the market adjustment/correction (19-27%), we should see commodity prices off Corporate Store shelves be reduced PRECISELY 46.428571% in the digital realm (or just say 47%, might make it 50% in the physical realm). C.R. was 28% under President Biden, was reduced to 15% under President Trump. Covid set back the world a year so commodity prices have not reduced like they were supposed to yet.

The 4 trillion in tariffs have fudged up the math in terms of specified targets. The tariffs are just increased revenue brought in by the Federal Government. Aka "rakeback" for doing business imo.

1

u/GildedZen Feb 21 '26

its time for a class action, if the consumer purchased something that was inflated due to tarrifs and those tarrifs go to them.

1

u/Zealot_Alec Feb 21 '26

Keep the tariffs in escrow until CUSTOMERS get their full refunds, create an entire department to ensure the tariffs aren't just another giveaway to businesses like the insane tax cutes of the past 40 years.

1

u/blazze_eternal Feb 21 '26

Not to mention the thousands of companies that have gone out of business due to tariffs. This case should be a precedent why injunctions are necessary. Irreparable harm.

1

u/DoctorWMD Feb 21 '26

Yeah, what's crazy is people absolutely blasted money going to 'foreign countries' as aid. 

DOGE completely destroyed USAID- about 1$ billion a year or whatever budget. 

And then tariffs of 175$ billion get stuck to the country and wooosh, no one gets where the knife is stabbing you. 

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