President Trump said Tuesday he would "remember" any company that declines to seek a refund on tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February, framing the decision not to collect billions in owed money as an act of patriotic loyalty, The Hill reported.
In a phone interview with CNBC, Trump was asked about reports that major corporations including Apple and Amazon had not yet filed refund requests for tariffs they paid under his administration's now-invalidated trade orders. His response was blunt.
"I think it's brilliant if they don't do that," Trump said. "If they don't do that, I'll remember them."
The comments came after U.S. Customs and Border Protection opened a refund portal called CAPE for importers and brokers who paid duties under tariffs the high court ruled illegal. CBP said more than 330,000 importers paid tariffs totaling roughly $166 billion. Trump put the figure at "$160 billion" the government now owes.
That is not a small number. And the president's willingness to publicly signal which side of the ledger he wants companies on, while the refund window is open, tells you everything about how he views the ruling and the corporate response to it.
In February, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Trump administration overstepped when it used the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on nearly every country. The decision was a significant legal setback for the president's trade agenda, one he publicly called "a little setback" on Tuesday.
But Trump made clear his frustration runs deeper than the label suggests. He told CNBC the justices could have spared the government the massive payout with a single sentence in their opinion.
"All they had to do is add one sentence, just one sentence, and that's, 'You don't have to pay anything taken in thus far, back.'"
The court did not provide guidance on how to handle refunds, leaving the mechanics to the executive branch and lower courts. That silence has created a contested space where the administration, Congress, and affected businesses are all jockeying for position.
Trump's relationship with the Supreme Court has been one of the defining features of his presidency. The court has frequently ruled in his administration's favor on emergency appeals, making this tariff loss all the more notable.
Senate Democrats wasted no time trying to turn the ruling into legislation. Sens. Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, and Jeanne Shaheen proposed a bill that would require CBP to refund roughly $175 billion in tariff revenue within 180 days, with interest, AP News reported.
The Penn Wharton Budget Model estimated the refunds would total about $175 billion, roughly $1,300 per U.S. household.
Wyden called the tariffs "Trump's illegal tax scheme" and said they had "already done lasting damage to American families, small businesses and manufacturers." Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed back, saying, "It is not up to the administration, it is up to the lower court."
That posture, waiting for lower courts rather than proactively issuing refunds, is consistent with the administration's broader strategy. And it explains why CBP's CAPE portal, while technically open, requires companies to submit detailed declarations of every good they were charged import taxes on. The first wave of claims will prioritize customs entries liquidated or finalized within the preceding 80 days. Refunds may take 60 to 90 days to review and process.
In other words, the money is not flowing back quickly. The bureaucratic friction is real. And the president's public comments add a layer of political pressure on top of the paperwork.
What makes Tuesday's interview striking is the openness of the signal. Trump was not merely commenting on the legal process. He was telling corporate America he is watching, and keeping score.
When asked whether companies might be avoiding refund requests out of concern about offending him, Trump did not deny it. He leaned in.
"Actually, if they don't do that, they've got to know me very well. I'm very honored by what you just said."
The Washington Times noted that the ruling forced the government to return some of the billions in tariff revenue collected in 2025, and that CBP opened the portal for companies to file aggregate refund claims plus interest. Trump's framing treats the refund process less as a legal obligation and more as a character test.
That framing has consequences. Companies with billions on the line now face a choice between recovering money the Supreme Court says they are owed and maintaining goodwill with a president who has broad discretionary power over trade, regulation, and government contracts. The president has shown a willingness to personally engage in major legal battles, and his track record suggests he means what he says about remembering who stood where.
Before the February ruling came down, Trump was already bracing for the possibility of a loss. In earlier posts on Truth Social, he warned the financial exposure could be enormous.
"The actual numbers that we would have to pay back if, for any reason, the Supreme Court were to rule against the United States of America on Tariffs, would be many Hundreds of Billions of Dollars."
He went further, Just The News reported, claiming that when related investments are factored in, "we are talking about Trillions of Dollars." The case centered on whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act gave him the authority to impose the "Liberation Day" tariffs, a legal theory the court ultimately rejected.
Trump also told CNBC he was "not happy with the Supreme Court" and criticized the justices directly for not shielding the government from repayment. Newsmax reported that Trump vowed to pursue alternative tariff mechanisms, signaling the trade fight will continue through other legal channels even after this defeat.
The political stakes of future Supreme Court vacancies only sharpen the tension. With Republicans already discussing potential nominees for possible openings, the composition of the court remains a live issue for the conservative legal movement.
The refund process is now grinding forward. Companies must navigate the CAPE portal, file detailed declarations, and wait months for review. The $166 billion figure, or $175 billion, depending on who is counting, represents one of the largest government repayment obligations in recent memory.
Democrats want to force the money out the door fast. The administration wants to slow-walk it through lower courts. And the president wants to know which companies are loyal enough not to ask for it at all.
Meanwhile, the broader question of how the court's conservative majority handles future clashes with the executive branch remains unresolved. The 6-3 split in this case crossed ideological lines in ways that surprised many observers and left the president publicly fuming at justices he expected to back him.
None of this changes the underlying policy question: whether the United States should use tariffs aggressively to reshape global trade. The Supreme Court did not say tariffs are wrong. It said these tariffs were imposed through the wrong legal authority. The distinction matters, and the administration appears ready to find another path.
But the spectacle of a sitting president publicly rewarding companies for not collecting money the courts say they are owed is worth pausing on. It tells you how the White House views this moment, not as a legal reckoning, but as a loyalty exercise.
When the government owes you $166 billion and the president says he'll "remember" whether you come to collect, that is not a refund process. That is a political calculation dressed up as one.