Trump Slams Supreme Court for Not Addressing Tariff Refunds in Ruling: 'Not Written by Smart People'
President Donald Trump criticized the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling that said he lacks the authority to impose tariffs using an emergency statute.
In April, Trump initiated tariffs under a 1977 emergency powers law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, citing a record $1.4 trillion trade deficit in 2024. He referred to the move as “Liberation Day” — meaning America’s liberation from being taken advantage of in trade by other countries.
In Friday’s 6-3 ruling, the high court held that the IEEPA “does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”
One of Trump’s critiques of the decision is that the court did not address what to do with the money already collected.
For calendar year 2025, the Trump administration collected $287 billion in tariff revenue, a 192 percent increase over the preceding year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
However, not all that revenue was taken in using IEEPA authority.
On Friday, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump, “Since ‘Liberation Day,’ there’s about $175 billion in tariff revenue that is now in limbo. Do you have to refund $175 billion?”
The president responded, saying that the justices took “months and months to write an opinion, and they don’t even discuss that point.”
“Wouldn’t you think they would have put one sentence in there saying … ‘keep the money’ or ‘don’t keep the money,’ right?” Trump asked.
Doocy: Do you have to refund 175 billion?
Trump: I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years. So they write this terrible defective decision. It’s almost like not written by smart people pic.twitter.com/HWeHPUIs2O
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 20, 2026
“I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years,” he continued. “So they write this terrible, defective decision … It’s almost like not written by smart people. And what they do they do? They don’t even talk about it. That was the first question I asked also.”
Another reporter followed up, “Are you saying you don’t plan to honor refunds for companies that file for them?”
“I just told you the answer. It’s not discussed. We’ll end up being in court for the next five years,” Trump said.
During oral arguments in the case in November, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who ruled against Trump’s tariffs on Friday, asked a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case, “If you win, tell me how the reimbursement process would work. Would it be a complete mess?”
Neal Katyal responded, “We don’t deny that it’s difficult.”
🚨Justice Barrett asks about refunding tariff revenue if the Trump admin loses the case: “If you win, tell me how the reimbursement process would work. Would it be a complete mess?”
Lawyer opposing Trump “We don’t deny that it’s difficult.” pic.twitter.com/xyvgyKffRL
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 5, 2025
Jackie DeAngelis, co-host on the Fox Business program “The Big Money Show,” offered a view similar to Trump’s following the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling and before Trump’s briefing.
“My assessment is that this will be tied up in court … Nobody, tomorrow, is taking out a checkbook in the federal government to voluntarily try to parse through what will be a very difficult process. Once you go through the court system, it will get tied up there for some time to come,” she said.
“In some ways, it was good for the Trump administration that the court didn’t get into the specifics of that, because it gives them an opportunity to kind of buy some time and figure out what they’re going to do,” DeAngelis added.
She argued that in the meantime, Trump used the IEEPE levies to negotiate several trade agreements this year, including the tariff rates that would be in effect, meaning they largely already served their purpose.
“The president accomplished what he wanted with the tariffs. The sweeping tariffs that he put out brought everyone to the table. They negotiated. He got some of those non-tariff trading barriers to be removed from these countries. And now they also realize that he’s got another avenue to go down, if he wants to play hardball,” DeAngelis contended, because the Supreme Court spelled out in its ruling under what statutes Trump does have authority to charge tariffs.
And, in fact, the president announced Friday that he will be imposing new tariffs using that authority.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday his agency estimates that tariff revenue will be “virtually unchanged” in 2026, thanks to the use of other legal authority.
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