US Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent will speak out as he signs an executive order at the White House oval office in Washington, DC on September 5, 2025.
Mandelungan | AFP | Getty Images
Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said on Sunday he is “confident” that President Donald Trump’s tariff plan will win in the Supreme Court, but his agency warned that the High Court would be forced to provide a massive refund if rules were made against it.
According to an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” if tariffs are removed, “we’d have to “refund about half of the tariffs that are terrible for the Treasury,” he said.
But he added, “If the court says that, we’ll have to do it.”
Last week, the Trump administration called on the Supreme Court for a “quick decision” to overturn the Court of Appeals, which found most of his tariffs on imports from other countries were illegal.
Generally, the Supreme Court can make decisions on the legality of Trump’s tariffs early next summer.
“Delaying the ruling until June 2026 will have already collected tariffs of $750 billion to $1 trillion, and rewinding them could cause major disruption.”
The outlook that the government must refund tariffs of that size could mean an unprecedented windfall for the companies and entities that paid them.
The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that Trump had stepped over presidential authorities when he introduced “mutual tariffs” on almost every country as part of his “liberation day” announcement.
The Court of Appeals suspended the ruling until October 14th, giving the Trump administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Trump requested that the Supreme Court hear the debate on his appeal in early November, and soon afterwards, a final decision on the legality of the dispute’s tariffs.
Before the court case, Trump’s tariffs were set to affect nearly 70% of US goods imports, according to the Tax Foundation. If hit, the duties affect about 16%.
But Bescent and others have expressed confidence that the Supreme Court will control its favorable control, but the administration is working on a backup plan in case it doesn’t.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said on Sunday there are “other legal authorities” that the administration can take if Trump’s tariffs are blocked.
“There are other things that can happen if you do that,” Hassett told CBS News “If tariffs are overturned, we will ‘face the public.’ Some of these efforts include the implementation of customs duties through Section 232 or sector-specific collection.
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows the president to implement collections, so following an investigation into trade practices, the president “does not threaten such imports to undermine national security,” NBC News reports.
For example, in August, the Trump administration expanded tariffs on steel and aluminum by 50%, expanding it to include more than 400 additional product categories. Trump also threatened to impose sudden tariffs on semiconductors and medicines.
Other taxation that is not affected by Trump’s court battle is one that uses low-cost items. The administration officially eliminated “minimum exemptions” for products worth less than $800 in the US.
On Saturday, the Universal Postal Coalition, a UN agency, said postal traffic to the US had plummeted by more than 80% after the Trump administration ended tariff exemptions on cheap imports.
