3/20/26 — Trump Refund Rhetoric
Today, March 19th, the President took a moment to complain against the IEEPA tariff refunds which he stated will approximate $500 billion (a massive overstatement considering CBPs $166 billion quantification). For those waiting for refunds, this hostile rhetoric is concerning.
Since February 20th, Treasury Secretary Bessent’s has spoken out against tariff refunds as being the “ultimate corporate welfare” and a “corporate boondoggle,” because (in his belief) importers largely raised prices or captured supplier discounts, such that tariff refunds now merely amount to a “windfall.” To drive this home, Bessenet questions whether importers will pass refunds back to U.S. consumers; hence arguing that tariff refunds do not help U.S. households, but merely enrich big companies that have already recouped those costs.
Immediately after the SCOTUS ruling on February 20th, President Trump himself had this blunt exchange with a reporter:
Reporter: “Since Liberation Day, there's about 175 billion in tariff revenue that is now in limbo. Do you have to refund 175 billion?”
Trump: “Think of it, Peter. Very fair question. They take months and months to write an opinion and they don't even discuss that point. We've taken in hundreds of billions of dollars, not millions, hundreds of billions of dollars. And so I said, ‘Well, what happens to all the money that we took in?’ It wasn't discussed. Wouldn't you think they would've put one sentence in there saying that keep the money or don't keep the money, right? I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years.”
Trump: “So they write this terrible defective decision, totally defective. It's almost like not written by smart people. And what they do? They don't even talk about that. Your question is very basic. That was the first question I asked also to make you feel good. And you say, ‘What about all the money that we've taken in?’ Sir, they don't discuss that. How crazy is that?”
Follow‑up:
Reporter: “What you're saying is, are you saying that you don't plan to honor refunds for companies that file for them?”
Trump: “I just told you the answer. Right? I told you the answer. It's not discussed. We'll end up being in court for the next five years.”
Taking the President at his Word, Refund Lawsuits Have Surged
The President's comments come as the pace of tariff refund litigation continues to accelerate with importers concerned that the Administration may file an appeal against the refund order. According to Bloomberg News, nearly 1,000 new refund cases have been filed at the Court of International Trade since March 1 alone, bringing the total to well over 3,000 lawsuits. The surge suggests that the trade community is not treating CBP's 45-day implementation timeline as a reason to stand down from litigation.
The idea is instead that importers with significant IEEPA exposure should continue to pursue all legal strategies: monitoring liquidations, filing timely protests under 19 U.S.C. 1514 where entries have liquidated, and pursuing early protective litigation at the CIT to preserve rights in the event the administrative process proves insufficient, complex, or delayed due to an appeal.