Trump’s next tariff fight: Keeping the money

After Trump’s Supreme Court tariff defeat, administration officials are devising legal strategies that would let the president keep some — or maybe even most — of the revenue, five people familiar with the conversations told POLITICO.

President Donald Trump calls on a reporter during a press conference at the White House after the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping tariffs on Feb. 20, 2026. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

Officials across the Trump administration are scrambling to devise legal strategies that would allow the government to keep billions of dollars in tariff revenue the Supreme Court said was illegally collected.

Early ideas include policies to discourage companies from claiming their refunds, prevent the government from paying the money back or otherwise preserve at least some of the tariff revenue, according to five people familiar with the conversations, granted anonymity to discuss them.

One of the ideas, according to two of the people, is to claim the tariff payments, which were collected over the last year, are legal under a revamped set of duties that the administration is now preparing under different legal authorities. Another would allow companies to jump to the front of what is expected to be a lengthy queue for refunds if they agree to forfeit some of the money to the government, according to one of the people familiar.

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