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Trump Encourages Companies Not to Seek Tariff Refunds
'If They Don’t Do That, I’ll Remember Them'
President Donald Trump said he’d remember companies that decline to seek refunds on duties paid after the Supreme Court struck down a large swath of his tariffs.
“It’s brilliant if they don’t do that,” Trump said April 21 on CNBC in response to a question about whether companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. should request refunds on duties that have now been deemed unlawful. “If they don’t do that, I’ll remember them.”
In February, the Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from nearly every country.
That ruling set the stage for a complicated task that could become the largest repayment by the U.S. government in its history.
Trump’s comments come a day after U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched a web portal for importers to file requests for refunds that could total more than $160 billion. Yet, the process is still fraught with uncertainty.
Thousands of companies, including Costco Wholesale Corp. and FedEx Corp., have separately filed lawsuits in the Court of International Trade in order to preserve their right to a refund should the Trump administration issue a challenge.
Watch @realDonaldTrump’s full Squawk Box interview:https://t.co/wvLCrAJD5T — Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 21, 2026
UPS Inc. said in a statement it would pass refunds to customers who paid tariffs via the courier, but only after the money is received from the government.
“There is no need for those customers to contact UPS. After we receive the funds from CBP, we have established a process to issue refunds to the payors,” the company said in a statement.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, Trump immediately imposed a temporary 10% tariff that is set to expire in July and the administration is working to restore that revenue using other tariff authorities.
“We’re doing it a different way. We’re going to end up with the same,” Trump said in the April 21 interview. “We’ll end up with bigger numbers, actually, but it’s a little more unwieldy.”
