‘We will have to return hundreds of billions of dollars,’ says Trump if SC rules against tariff orders

The United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that if the US Supreme Court’s order in a case over the legality of the global tariffs imposed by him doesn’t fall in his favour, he will do his best to pay the tariffs back.

Admitting that the United States has already taken hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, Trump signalled that the US might have to return the amount to the countries if it lost the case in the apex court. Having said that, he expressed concern over how that would be done, as it would require a huge sum of money.

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He said, “I don’t know what the Supreme Court is going to do… Tariff is probably less severe than what a license could be… I don’t know where there’s a case even there, but we’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars, and if we lose that case, it’s possible we’re going to have to do the best we can in paying it back. I don’t know how that’s going to be done very easily without hurting a lot of people.

However, he continued to stress that the US has significant national security benefits from tariffs.

The US Supreme Court has not ‌announced ‌the date ‍when it will ‍issue a ruling in the case. It issued three decisions yesterday but did not announce a ‌decision on ‌Trump’s tariffs.

Meanwhile, Trump said that he was ‘anxiously’ waiting for the Supreme Court’s ruling in the matter.