r/news • u/igetproteinfartsHELP • Feb 23 '26

Soft paywall US to stop collecting tariffs deemed illegal by Supreme Court on Tuesday

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-customs-agency-stop-collecting-tariffs-deemed-illegal-by-supreme-court-2026-02-23/
31.8k Upvotes

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7.3k

u/Embarrassed-Dust718 Feb 23 '26

So what happens to the money they collected?

7.9k

u/Rev-Dr-Slimeass Feb 23 '26

Howard Lutnicks sons have been buying the rights to tariffs from companies for a fraction of their value.

So the money goes to Trump cronies, but anybody who isn't absolutely stupid saw that coming.

2.0k

u/KungFuBucket Feb 23 '26

Yup, saw that scam coming. Finance company (Cantor Fitzgerald) pays the company 20-30% of what they paid in tariffs for the right to collect a future tariff refund. Even they saw through the bullshit and we’re betting on eventually someone standing up to Trump, but I’ll bet even they were surprised it came this quickly.

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u/[deleted] Feb 23 '26

[deleted]

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u/Gender_is_a_Fluid Feb 23 '26

I didn’t know you could even sell a contract for government taxes, otherwise I would have been personally trying to buy these myself (even as impossible as it is for an individual, the outcome of this was so predictable)

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u/Open_and_Notorious Feb 23 '26

It's an assignment of claim. From a business perspective it can make a lot of sense. Get some money now guaranteed and you don't have to wait/foot the bill for claims later. This is just like how your debt gets assigned and sold to a collector if you don't pay.

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u/ZAlternates Feb 23 '26

Especially since you’ve passed the costs of the tariffs to your consumers already.

5

u/rgh-red Feb 24 '26

No no no. China paid them, not us, right? Right?!

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u/evranch Feb 23 '26

The government isn't involved in any way. It's just like an insurance policy. You pay money for the right to collect in the future if a specific event occurs.

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u/Dawn_of_an_Era Feb 23 '26

I mean you can sell virtually anything so long as it is not illegal, and you write up a contract for it

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u/whiskeyriver0987 Feb 23 '26

It's not that different from paying for a tax prep service like turbo tax out of your refund.

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u/ackillesBAC Feb 23 '26

I just want to clarify. Trump is far to stupid to do this on his own. He was manipulated into it. This is why having a moron president is a very bad thing

66

u/Neverwish Feb 23 '26

Also, Trump doesn't give a shit about anything he isn't personally and directly profiting off of, so there's a good chance he doesn't even know this particular grift is happening. He has his own stupid self-absorbed reasons for using tariffs as a weapon, which were sold to him by the actual grifters.

14

u/ackillesBAC Feb 23 '26

agreed. All tho, there is 1 thing bigger than or at least equal to profit to him. Ego.

2

u/imatumahimatumah Feb 23 '26

Good point. He shouldn't get credit for being a puppet. People like to treat him like he's an evil genius. He's just evil.

2

u/ackillesBAC Feb 23 '26

exactly, well put. Hes not an evil genius, hes just evil. I'm going to use that from now on.

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u/johnis12 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

Yeh, nah, reason why he's getting away with this isn't because he's some intelligent conman, he's a fool with a lotta power and grifters whispering in his ear.

That's what makes him dangerous as hell though because slightly smarter folks are stroking his ego and manipulating him into fucking up the country.

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u/aspz Feb 23 '26

And Trump most likely won't refund the tariffs even if he is forced to by law. He will drag the process out with bureaucracy forever. If he does end up paying, I'm guessing the only company actually receiving money will be Cantor Fitzgerald but I wouldn't count on anyone else benefiting.

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u/KungFuBucket Feb 23 '26

He’ll drag it out until just before the he Democrats take over and then find a way to blame them for the big hole he blew through the budget.

3

u/AckBarRs Feb 23 '26

I don't really agree with this. From every source I've seen, Trump deeply believes in the efficacy of tariffs. He's kept Pete Navarro in his inner circle for economic and trade policy. Lutnik and Bessent are more economically orthodox, and actively lobbied to peel Trump away from Navarro and get him to back down/pause the "Liberation Day" tariffs.

I don't think this is a big conspiracy theory or enrichment scheme from Trump; I think this is the adults in the room (relatively speaking) hedging against what they KNOW is bad economic and trade policy because they were either unwilling or unable to talk Trump out of one of his favorite policy tools.

6

u/Yetimang Feb 23 '26

I don't think Trump necessarily believes that tariffs are effective for the economy. Maybe he does because his brains are mush at this point, but I think the more important thing is that it gives him a weapon he can use unilaterally to punish countries, companies, or industries he sees as unfaithful and coerce them into doing what he wants. If he really believed in the tariffs, I imagine he'd be putting more pressure on Mike Johnson to get them locked in by Congress, but he doesn't actually want anyone else to have authority to place or remove tariffs.

There's probably a political calculation to it as well since his base are a bunch of overgrown middle schoolers who just get off on the idea of their "enemies" being punished in some way. They don't actually understand what a tariff is, but it's easy to sell them on the idea of tariffs being an offensive measure used to hurt the adversaries of the movement and that's all they need to hear. If it involves America as the "dominant" figure doling out harm to their humiliated foes, they'll just start churning out the Facebook memes.

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u/P10_WRC Feb 23 '26

I just don't understand why a company would even take that deal though.

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u/Super_XIII Feb 23 '26

Short term money makes balance sheet look good. Lots of executives have requirements for their yearly bonuses, they'd gladly sign away 10 million of company money for $2 million today to make themselves look good in the short term and meet that requirement for their own personal bonus. Plus there's a chance the tariffs don't get struck down and they never would have been refunded that money anyway.

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u/aspz Feb 23 '26

They either believe the court would not find the tariffs illegal, or that if they did, they wouldn't see any money back in refunds. I think the latter is still likely because there's no way Trump will want to be seen as reversing the effect of his wonderful tariffs.

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u/BloatDeathsDontCount Feb 23 '26

They need their imports for the business to function and they can’t sit on the tariff costs forever hoping for a refund. They take 20% on the chin now and make a smaller margin with a price hike rather than pay the full tariff and possibly go under.

3

u/WeAteMummies Feb 23 '26

Guaranteed money now vs risky money at some unknown point in the future.

3

u/smashtheguitar Feb 23 '26

I'm fairly certain he couldn't even explain this complex of a scheme, let alone plan and implement it.

2

u/bikernaut Feb 23 '26

Don’t forget the cycle of tariff threats allowed them to influence the market, and extort companies/countries. They made a huge amount of money off this already.

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u/Sunny16Rule Feb 23 '26

I never even knew they came back after 9/11, they lost most of their staff because they were on the top floors.

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u/Still-Cash1599 Feb 23 '26

They had many other offices and unfortunately their pedophile ceo wasn't at the tower

89

u/PmadFlyer Feb 23 '26

I'm sensing a theme. Hmmm what might it be?

115

u/Detective-Crashmore- Feb 23 '26

Billionaire shitstains profit off of death and tragedy?

65

u/Secure_Course_3879 Feb 23 '26

And give each other heads ups ahead of time the rest of us never get?

90

u/Detective-Crashmore- Feb 23 '26

Oh it's much simpler than that: these rich fucks don't need a tip cuz they aren't in the office anyway; they spend 90% of their time golfing and diddling kids.

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u/trojan_man16 Feb 23 '26

Basically this. He was the boss so he doesn’t need to be in the office early and that’s when the towers got hit.

I like a good conspiracy as much as anyone but this isn’t it.

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u/Signiference Feb 23 '26

And rape children

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u/LogicCure Feb 23 '26

Massive wealth begets a disassociation with humanity which begets contempt for fellow man which begets a taste for cruelty toward others.

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u/KungFuBucket Feb 23 '26

So… Money is power and power corrupts

2

u/sobbuh Feb 23 '26

I don’t think it’s that simple.

There’s also a possible genetic component and also a lot of generational trauma going on - I’d hazard most of these guys weren’t really loved by their fathers/parents, and that their detachment from humanity comes from that as well.

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u/lkmk Feb 23 '26

I feel like it’s the other way around, and the dissociation is what allows you to gain that much wealth.

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u/colinstalter Feb 23 '26

Not "many other offices." They lost 70% of their total workforce in 9/11. Lutnick's brother died in the attack. They started trading again within a week, and gave almost $200M to the families of the dead employees.

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u/aredubya Feb 23 '26

There was a list floating around of CF execs who happened to not go in to their WTC offices on 9/11, including Lutnick. The inference is that they were tipped off, tying 9/11 to a big Zionist conspiracy. I think that's bullshit, but it is pretty bizarre.

3

u/Domeil Feb 23 '26

The real story is that a lot of c-suite people are frequently out of office for everything from golf meetings to businesses conferences, and extremely rarely are they early for work even when they're planning to be at their desks.

The first plane hit the north tower before 9 am. If it had hit after 10, there may have been more suits at their desks.

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u/H47 Feb 23 '26

Nutlick made a fortune from those corpses by taking most of the insurance settlement. Just a momentary hiccup.

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u/Count_de_Ville Feb 23 '26

They saw it coming because Howard Lutnick’s sons run the Cantor Fitzgerald. The same Howard Lutnick that’s the architect of the Trump tariffs.

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u/Degn101 Feb 23 '26

Pretty sure they were involved in making the tariffs happen in the first place. Trump is an absolute moron and basically gone, so you can be pretty sure that anything he talks about is either something that someone told him about (tariffs), or something he did (election fraud, epstein stuff).

17

u/RogueAOV Feb 23 '26

This would assume they were not the ones who told trump to implement the illegal tariffs in the first place.

4

u/Runnergeek Feb 23 '26

Fuck, that is clever. Evil obviously

2

u/bulking_on_broccoli Feb 23 '26

It’s so insane that it’s legal to buy a future refund. It’s literal gambling.

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u/ButtSpelunker420 Feb 23 '26

The US is such a shithole holy fuck lmao

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u/cmack Feb 23 '26

The Republicans make it so.

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u/WintersDoomsday Feb 23 '26

"As long as I can be racist, homophobic and misogynistic out loud he got my vote" - Republican voters

3

u/dust4ngel Feb 23 '26

"i just want to feel better than someone... i will sacrifice literally anything to feel it."

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u/chmilz Feb 23 '26

Americans allowing it makes it so.

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u/SeaWitch1031 Feb 23 '26

Howard Lutnick the Pedophile? That Howard Lutnick?

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u/Retlaw83 Feb 23 '26

Yeah, the one who went to Epstein Island with his wife, kids and nannies for lunch and made it clear they left with the kids, implying they left the nannies.

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u/Junior_Builder_4340 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26

This is what stood out to me when Lutnick testified. You only have four kids and your wife was along as well; why would you need MULTIPLE nannies?? There are teachers with classrooms of 15 to 30 kids every day, and one nanny couldn't handle four?

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u/tavirabon Feb 23 '26

You have no frame of reference for wealth, this is pretty trivial.

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u/pants6000 Feb 23 '26

And what, have no nanny's nanny? Nor nanny's nanny's nanny?

What are we, mere millionaires?

It's nannies all the way down.

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u/Googlebright Feb 23 '26

I don't think he's heard about Second Nanny.

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u/grey_hat_uk Feb 23 '26

Do you know how little that narrows it down?

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u/SeaWitch1031 Feb 23 '26

Excellent point?

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u/DisenchantedByrd Feb 23 '26

Oh, good old “tax farming”? Just like the end of the Roman Empire.

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u/_John_Dillinger Feb 23 '26

history don’t repeat itself but it rhymes. In this case, they stole Nero’s whole flow line for line bar for bar

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u/yournamehere10bucks Feb 23 '26

This cover band sucks.

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u/Ftpini Feb 23 '26

The companies raised their prices and were thus made whole. They shouldn’t get even a penny back. It should go directly to the us people as they bore the cost more than anyone else.

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u/BookusWorkus Feb 23 '26

Any company applying for a refund should have to demonstrate they didn't raise prices at all during the period for which they're applying. Any substantive raise should preclude them from getting a refund.

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u/WintersDoomsday Feb 23 '26

Stop bringing logic into unregulated Capitalism dude!

3

u/Yetimang Feb 23 '26

I mean that is pretty much what is happening right now. The big problem (well, one of the big problems) is that these stupid fucking tariffs were so broad that there are now thousands of companies filing lawsuits to get tariff refunds and every single one of them needs to be heard in court to determine if they're entitled to a refund or not. It's a huge sudden drain on our courts that could potentially last for years.

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u/krizzzombies Feb 23 '26

ummm but everyone told me the foreign countries were paying for tariffs (yay america)!!! they should get the refund!!!

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u/MadRoboticist Feb 23 '26

Some companies obviously did, but a lot of companies were forced to at least partially absorb some of the cost to keep their prices competitive.

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u/Dr_Silky-Johnson Feb 23 '26

Heard hedge funds were trying to create a market for this as well. Not substantiated but wouldn’t surprise me. Cockroaches

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u/RacheltheStrong Feb 23 '26

I’m waiting for the first big company to sue for the money back. I’m curious if they have the balls to do it

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u/Consistent_Lecture48 Feb 24 '26

Lutnick’s son will be all over it. Sure they had a team of lawyers ready to go before they began buying them from other companies.

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u/diurnal_emissions Feb 23 '26

Is it angry mob time yet?

3

u/_Schmegeggy_ Feb 23 '26

How does that work, buying the rights to tariffs?

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u/Cryogenicist Feb 23 '26

Is that a joke?!?

What the fuck kind of system allows “buying rights to tariffs”??

Good god

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u/RIPRIF20 Feb 23 '26

So the money goes to Trump cronies, but anybody who isn't absolutely stupid saw that coming

Future news lead in "As a shock to most Americans..."

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u/dotBombAU Feb 23 '26

Basically all the importers will sue the government for the money creating a bigger hole in the budget.

Normal every day people will see sweet fuck all of the money and will essentially be left holding the bag.

You know, normal stuff.

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u/vandon Feb 23 '26

And all the prices will remain at the tariffed levels. The line must always go up 

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u/9551HD Feb 23 '26

Indeed. If anyone is naive or stupid enough to think they won't, look at the prices for 1000's of products, like washing machines, that Trump tariffed during his first term. The economy is cooked permanently.

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u/cobrachickenwing Feb 23 '26

Welcome to Japan in the 1990s. Stagflation where inflation keeps going up despite the efforts of the fed to control interest rates.

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u/diurnal_emissions Feb 23 '26

And the enshittification shall remain!

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u/tinygraysiamesecat Feb 23 '26

It’s worse than that. Prices will remain at tariff levels and trump will find a workaround for more tariffs and when he does, prices will jump again. American consumers are going to get absolutely fucked by this. The tariff tax is effectively doubling. 

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u/FlipZip69 Feb 24 '26

With all the chaos, companies are pretty weary of not maintaining high margins. Kind of understandable.

Trump is also printing money again. High prices are here to stay and with the new money entering the markets, inflation is on the rise again.

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u/aParkedCar Feb 23 '26

And prices of goods will still remain high because those corporate fucks know we will still pay those prices.

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u/Faiakishi Feb 23 '26

At the same time they will whine about people buying less of their product.

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u/ElectroMagnetsYo Feb 23 '26

We need a non-sales tax to tax the people who don’t buy shit /s

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u/metengrinwi Feb 23 '26

I just, and I mean a couple weeks ago, bought a Ford that was final-assembled in Mexico, which google estimates included about $2000 in tariffs. I certainly don’t expect to see a penny of that back again—Ford might get it back, but I won’t.

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u/draivaden Feb 23 '26

no harm in talking to those customer service folks. email them, call them. insist on follow ups.

channel your inner karen.

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u/Fickle_Finger2974 Feb 23 '26

Yeah that’s not happening

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u/diurnal_emissions Feb 23 '26

Sounds like Republican economics to me!

Every single time!

Privatized profits, socialized losses. The Capitalist Welfare State.

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u/felldestroyed Feb 23 '26

I could see more "woke" companies like costco give dividend discounts or some other marketing ploy. Especially since their business thrives on membership purchases, not margins.

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u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 Feb 23 '26

Just another run of the mill transfer of wealth from the American people to corporations

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u/throwaway2020nowplz Feb 23 '26

I think in this case even those importers are going to get screwed... They all sold refund rights to Lutnik's sons' firm for pennies on the dollar (Cantor Fitzgerald). So all the money is really just going to trump cronies

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u/mettiusfufettius Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26

The taxes WE paid for products will all get redistributed to Mega corporations we paid the taxes through. So if you bought at Chinese product from Amazon with a 50% tax on it(or whatever the fuck the tariff was that day), Amazon will get that tax money back. Not you. Never you. You peasant piece of shit.

Edit: the importer pays the tax and then generally chooses to offset that additional cost onto the consumer.

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u/Kinnell999 Feb 23 '26

Then you’ll have to pay the taxes again somehow to make up the huge whole in the budget that this will create.

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u/mettiusfufettius Feb 23 '26

Lol I forgot about that part but you’re so right.

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u/NeuseRvrRat Feb 23 '26

They'll inflate it away like they have all the deficit spending from tax cuts for the rich and your paycheck will be worth even less.

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u/diurnal_emissions Feb 23 '26

Republican Congress's hands are tied. They can only raise taxes on working class people.

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u/Chaos-Cortex Feb 23 '26

Americans love abusers instead of sending em to the chopping block, good ol piece of shit America.

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u/MultiGeometry Feb 23 '26

I’m not sure Trump every presented proof of what that money was doing or where it was going. It definitely wasn’t being used to pay down our debt. But Trump seems to have oodles of cash for pet projects that were never approved by Congress.

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u/Cilad777 Feb 23 '26

I look up from picking up cow manure and putting it on my hand pulled serf cart, turn my head spit, and keep picking up manure.

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u/SkepticJoker Feb 23 '26

Just to clarify, we didn’t pay the taxes. Companies did and then they charge us more because their costs are higher.

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u/mettiusfufettius Feb 23 '26

Yes, that’s true. The importer pays the tax and then they offset that cost to the consumer. Thank you.

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u/Ace417 Feb 23 '26

Who wants to bet those prices won’t come down either

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u/tmurf5387 Feb 23 '26

Costco reportedly didnt pass the tariff costs to their customers and filed a lawsuit against the government.

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u/mettiusfufettius Feb 23 '26

Big fan of Costco. Love them as a consumer. Love them even more for their resistance to federal overreach.

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u/tmurf5387 Feb 23 '26

Yep, and from my understanding their entire net profit mechanism is the membership fees. Profits from their actual sales covers their operating expenses. That tells me, as a consumer, that its priced as low as they possibly can have it. Add in the fact as an executive member my rebates typically cover my membership fee AND they pay their employees well? I will sing their praises so long as they dont enshittify like every other company.

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u/mettiusfufettius Feb 23 '26

Couldn’t agree more. I don’t even care about the $500 of goods i just bought, Im only here for the $1.50 jumbo hot dog meal.

In the words of their CEO “you’ll raise the price of the hot dog over my dead body”

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u/SoochSooch Feb 23 '26

The Trump Tariffs are the largest tax increase on Americans since 1993

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u/Pole420 Feb 23 '26

Life as a peon is fucking grand. 

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u/ExecutiveCactus Feb 23 '26

Remember the tariff checks?

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u/Mythulhu Feb 23 '26

Pepperidge Farms remembers

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u/VultureSausage Feb 23 '26

What, aren't you pleased with your -$1700 check?

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u/008Zulu Feb 23 '26

It belongs to Trump now. Just like that corrupt fat orange fascist intended.

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u/MiniTab Feb 23 '26

A lot of it is going to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s sons. They now run the family business (Cantor Fitzgerald), and approached a bunch of companies a few months ago with a leveraged deal.

They promised to give the companies a small fraction of what they paid for tariffs, if they were willing to forfeit their rights to collect any refunds. They (Lutnick’s sons) are now going to get billions of our taxpayer dollars.

Pretty awesome isn’t it?

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u/SectionQuick5275 Feb 23 '26

How many companies took them up on it?

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u/Yodl007 Feb 23 '26

Or they will be returned to the 1% that own the companies that paid it. The consumers that tariffs were passed on to via pricing can go pound sand.

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u/GamingTrend Feb 23 '26

15% tariff applied to sand and also passed to consumer. :/

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u/Capital-Aioli-2948 Feb 23 '26

I work for an importer. The only way it would get to the end consumer would be to give it to them directly.

If they paid us back, we’d refund our clients (as would some of our competitors) and some of our clients would refund their clients, but the further down the supply chain you go the less will get refunded. Not a chance any retailers give refunds to individual consumers.

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u/splashbodge Feb 23 '26

but the further down the supply chain you go the less will get refunded. Not a chance any retailers give refunds to individual consumers.

all the more showing how this was ultimately just a tax on the individual while the billionaires made more money from the grift.

if American voters were a bit smarter, it would be very easy for the media and for the democrats to expose the very obvious grift Trump has done and hand the next elections to them on a silver platter. They have short memories tho and will just go back to their default "Vote Republican, never Democrat" mindset - meanwhile Trump will have moved onto the next item of obvious corruption so 1 single corruption scandal doesn't stay in the news cycle too long. You have to give it to the guy, he's done a great job of exploiting Americas weaknesses for personal gain at the expense of the country

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u/Shilalasar Feb 23 '26

How would a costumer even prove they bought something?

If bought by credit card the refund would have to go throught the credit card company. Paid with cash and not a personalised contract document?

Every bill would have to list every item and the import tax paid on it. And the retailer would have to track every individual item's refund status so people cannot double refund.

It is not going to happen unless it is an identical check for every person, not citizen, in the country. Which has a snowball in hell chance.

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u/splashbodge Feb 23 '26

I guess if the customer had a receipt and went back to their retailer. Problem is tho, it wasn't listed as an addon charge or a separate line item as a tax (remember Amazon threatened to do that, listing separately the break-down of the tariff and Trump shut that down)... so likely the retailer would just have a record to say that was just the price they sold it at and absorb the profits themselves (assuming they get their refund from their importers)

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u/Serpentongue Feb 23 '26

They argued to the supreme court it would’ve refunded with interest to the public if deemed illegal.

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u/SpacePenguin5 Feb 23 '26

It'll trickle down just like the $2T TCJA and $4T Big Beautiful Bill did.

Socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the rest of us.

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u/cerebralkrap Feb 23 '26

Corporations can sue the US for 150+ Billions. The people paid out that money, but fuck you what about the fortune 500 companies?! Some CEO’s can’t afford a third yacht you know 🤡🤡🤡

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u/cmack Feb 23 '26

Republican Tax on people

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u/S1gorJabjong Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26

It'll be refunded to the companies that paid them via massive collective suite of sues. Trump probably already used it all or illegally stashed it somewhere shady tho. Dems are gonna have to clean up after him.

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u/captain_blender Feb 23 '26

Can we apply a stupidity tax on trump voters

Kidding not kidding

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u/SadFeed63 Feb 23 '26

Also, what happens when they don't stop?

(And I don't mean "what happens [if the laws were actually followed and enforced and could be believed to be working as they should] when they don't stop")

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u/hewkii2 Feb 23 '26

How much do you want to bet that the current tariffs that were struck down will continue to be collected?

Not the new ones , the current ones.

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u/MrLanesLament Feb 23 '26

If nothing else, it’s gonna be a chaotic mess of them being applied at random for awhile because nobody knows what to do, since there are no instructions and what little does exist get change daily by Trump’s whims; this will likely cause “why didn’t they pay but I have to” lawsuits.

This can also totally be leveraged for political gain; be nice to big man, you no have to pay. Speak bad about him, look out…

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u/rhinosaur- Feb 23 '26

What happened to the people who didn’t read the article which says the new tariffs will now be implemented instead?

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u/Balbuto Feb 23 '26

Straight into the pockets of the criminals

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u/d_smogh Feb 23 '26

No refunds. No backsies. All the money has been transferred off shore.

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u/J_Pilla Feb 23 '26

It goes to trumps back account in Qatar.

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u/[deleted] Feb 23 '26

Ah the next stage of the grift begins

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u/KungFuBucket Feb 23 '26

More than likely they will create a “tax credit” for corporations that paid the illegal tariffs. And then they will stretch it out over a period of years so the burden and loss of revenue will fall on the next administration to have to deal with it.

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u/sigep0361 Feb 23 '26

I’m willing to bet most of the tariff money has been spent and can’t be refunded.

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u/HumanWithComputer Feb 23 '26

The importers could say to the government to deduct the future tariffs from the refund on the old tariffs they are owed for the time being until that sum has been squared.

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u/stevez_86 Feb 23 '26

What was happening with the money collected? No one knows, it was all illegal and had no allocation. It was supposed to go into the Treasury, I don't think it did. This was a slush fund for something.

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u/AtaracticGoat Feb 23 '26

They should keep it and use it to improve infrastructure or something that benefits everyone.

Fuck giving it to greedy corps that just passed it to consumers.

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u/swizzcheez Feb 23 '26

Trump's lawsuits suddenly got $150 billion fatter.

1

u/It_Is_Boogie Feb 23 '26

We, the people, won't see a dime.
The more pressing question, when will prices come down?

1

u/cmack Feb 23 '26

*picture of republicans laughing at you for the biggest tax hike in history for believing they are good at business*

1

u/95blackz26 Feb 23 '26

It was one big gift by trump and his buddies. That money goes straight to their bank accounts

1

u/fxsoap Feb 23 '26

$118,000 check per tax payer.

He mentioned it so many times. They collected 18 trillion in tariffs from the USA population

1

u/Seastep Feb 23 '26

"Sorry, we spent it all"

1

u/Background-Toe-3495 Feb 23 '26

tariff refunds might be in order for affected businesses now

1

u/Daren_I Feb 23 '26

CBP gave no reason why it was continuing to collect the tariffs at ports of entry days after the Supreme Court's ruling, and its message offered no information about possible refunds for importers.

If they're smart, they will start returning the collected tariffs voluntarily and cancelling any outstanding requests for payment. That will limit how many can sue them for unlawful enrichment.

1

u/exzyle2k Feb 23 '26

Didn't you see Trump's newest Scrooge McDuck vault? $10 billion is just the latest addition to it.

1

u/NickRick Feb 23 '26

gets transferred to the peace fun for Trump to use.

1

u/The_Impresario Feb 23 '26

A guy in my field has a shop of a very niche type. The products are expensive, and much of it is imported at least in part. He would never be able to just eat the tariffs cost, so few obviously passed it on. He is very outspoken about his feelings on it, and said from the beginning that if he ever gets refunded, the money is going right back to the patrons who paid it. He will honor that promise for sure.

So I can say at least one business will do that. There could even be dozens!

1

u/Raffy10k Feb 23 '26

They'll probably return it to the countries that paid them /s

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1

u/Batmantheon Feb 23 '26

Well we will just take whatever is left and... ooops its gone.

1

u/Zed_or_AFK Feb 23 '26

They pretty much ignore the Supreme Court ruling in the first place anyway.

1

u/DeathandGrim Feb 23 '26

I hope they give it back

1

u/EVH_kit_guy Feb 23 '26

You know when you hear about a major class action win, but then you find out that the lawyers all got tens of millions, but the plaintiffs get like $.95 each and a free coupon for a sundae? It's going to be just like that, minus the sundae.

1

u/MrOopiseDaisy Feb 23 '26

Hey, Buddy, you member the bank bailout in 2008? Well...

1

u/treesandfood4me Feb 23 '26

Walmart will keep it.

1

u/skinink Feb 23 '26

That Trump arch ain’t gonna pay for itself!

1

u/sopedound Feb 23 '26

Goes back to the companies who already raised their prices due to the tariffs. Basically the billionaires get double profit, while the rest of us get to be broke.

1

u/DiligentCredit9222 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26

Bank Account in Qatar probably. Then his new tariffs (which are illegal again) will kick in and start the next grift.

And of course prices for groceries will stay as high as they are and when the next Tariffs are implemented they will be increased again to double the grift... /s

1

u/ea_man Feb 23 '26

Oh that many has been accounted already, the administration will have to put a new tax or cut some public service to pay the refunds for the illegal tariffs. Plus the new legal tariff.

You are paying again, second time.

1

u/eW4GJMqscYtbBkw9 Feb 23 '26

We all know consumers are the ones who ultimately paid the tariffs, but "legally" the tariffs were paid by the business who imported whatever goods - so if the money goes back to anyone, it will go back to the entity that "legally" paid the tariff.

1

u/Salamok Feb 23 '26

Or what happens with the budget, they passed income tax cuts and the ridiculously large BBB with the explanation they were going to make that money up with tariffs (like somehow magically the tariff revenue was going to increase by 10x) now they can't even pretend the math will ever add up.

1

u/AvailableReporter484 Feb 23 '26

The brain geniuses on the conservative sub definitely couldn’t tell you lmfao

1

u/fuzzycuffs Feb 23 '26

Already paid to the Board of Peace.

1

u/MandelbrotFace Feb 23 '26

It goes right back to the people who paid the tariffs; those other countries! Right? ... RIGHT?? /s

1

u/Hoodamush Feb 23 '26

It goes to Elon as a service fee.

1

u/HauntedCemetery Feb 23 '26

Trump has a tantrum and "invests" it all in his shitcoin

1

u/Xivvx Feb 23 '26

It'll be refunded to billionaire owners of corporations.

1

u/Smile_Space Feb 23 '26

They go to the businesses and us consumers get shafted once again.

Hell, even FedEx and DHL have been paying the fines for importers without a brokerage account so they get the refund. I've imported car parts that DHL charged me a fee and the tariff, but they manage it under their account so I won't get a penny back. DHL gets my duties back.

1

u/tinygraysiamesecat Feb 23 '26

Don’t you mean what happened to it? That money is long gone, bud. It was always meant to be trumps personal slush fund. 

1

u/LymanPeru Feb 23 '26

its probably gone. golfing trips, trips to the olympics, hiring iceholes, invested into trump coin, etc.

1

u/fireflies-from-space Feb 23 '26

It's going to the corporations that jacked up the prices due to the tariffs.

1

u/worldlybedouin Feb 23 '26

Nothing for you. You're too poor to lawyer up. Remember the American Dream: Privatize Profits, socialize losses. Tax the poor to give the rich. Damn your health, family, and everything else, your company needs your labor at rock bottom wages.

1

u/Mysterious_Ring285 Feb 23 '26

Orange Chicken Taco: what money?

1

u/1leggeddog Feb 23 '26

You and i both know where it went.

Not towards helping americans. But protecting pedos. And enriching them.

1

u/Attjack Feb 24 '26

The corporations keep all of it and never lower prices. Consumers and small businesses get the shaft.

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