President Trump continues to rail against the Supreme Court and the decision it handed down Friday that invalidated many of his tariffs. In a series of posts on his social media site, Trump again criticized the ruling, calling it “ridiculous” and “dumb.” As he did on Friday, he again insisted that the court had given him “far more powers and strength” and had approved other ways for him to impose tariffs, adding that those other paths “can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty.”
Trump on Friday announced that he had signed an executive order imposing a temporary 10% global tariff starting tomorrow. He then followed up Saturday and said those global tariffs would be 15% instead, the maximum allowed under the law, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.
As part of his social media tirade on Monday, Trump also insisted that countries that have struck trade deals with his administration must abide by those agreements even if they call for higher rates than his Section 122 tariffs.
“Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to,” Trump wrote, intentionally leaving the “supreme court” in lowercase letters “based on a complete lack of respect!”
No president had ever invoked Section 122, and Trump’s action could lead to further legal challenges. But the tariffs imposed under that law also require congressional approval to be extended after 150 days — something Trump is unlikely to get given opposition to tariffs from lawmakers in both parties.
“Senate Democrats will continue to fight back against Trump’s tariff tax and will block any attempt to extend these harmful tariffs when they expire this summer,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday. “Democrats will not go along with furthering Trump’s economic carnage.”
Trump is already looking for other options. He said in a social media post on Saturday that he will use the “next short number of months” to work on other “legally permissible” tariffs.
Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged on Monday that lawmakers aren’t likely to be able to come together in support of Trump’s tariffs. “It’s going to be, I think, a challenge to find consensus on any path forward on the tariffs on the legislative side,” the speaker told reporters. “And so that is why I think we see so much of the attention on the executive side.”
What about tariff refunds? The Supreme Court decision did not address what should be done with the money collected under the Trump import levies it deemed illegal — a total that reportedly stood at $133 billion as of mid-December but could end up topping $175 billion, according to various estimates.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh echoed Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s warning during oral arguments that the refund process was likely to be a “mess.”
It’s true. Trade experts expect importers to get the money back, eventually — and they don’t expect consumers to benefit much, if at all. But the refund process is likely to be bumpy and involve plenty of additional legal proceedings before the Court of International Trade and other lower courts. “The Supreme Court remanded it down to a lower court,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN on Sunday. “And, you know, we will follow what they say, but that could be weeks or months when we hear them.”
A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Ron Wyden, Ed Markey and Jeanne Shaheen introduced legislation Monday that would require the Trump administration to fully refund the revenue collected under the tariffs struck down by the high court. The Tariff Refund Act of 2026 would also have the administration pay interest on the tariff money collected and to process all refunds within 180 days.
“Our bill would require the tariffs to be refunded and level the playing field—putting small importers and small businesses first in the refund process and eliminating needless administrative barriers,” Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts said in a statement. “It’s Main Street and working families that paid Trump’s tariff taxes, and we must ensure they get their money back—not big corporations.”
Democratic Reps. Steven Horsford and Janelle Bynum introduced similar legislation on Friday, though their Restoring Economic Lifelines for Independent Enterprises and Family Businesses (RELIEF) Act would require refunds within 90 days of enactment.
The Democratic bills are unlikely to get through the Republican-controlled Congress, especially during an election season in which the White House opposes them and continues to staunchly defend Trump’s tariff agenda.
“Democrats spent decades talking about lopsided ‘free’ trade deals, reshoring middle-class manufacturing jobs, and lowering prescription drug prices,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement to news outlets. “President Trump used tariffs to actually deliver where Democrats could only talk, so naturally Democrats are rolling up their sleeves to undermine President Trump and the American people — pathetic but unsurprising.”
Democrats will be able to counter such claims with their own political attacks based on the court’s ruling — and fueled by the complexity of the refund issue and the administration’s apparent reluctance to smooth that process.
“The Trump administration has asserted that its hands are tied, because any refunds should be the responsibility of further litigation in court,” writes Josh Boak of the Associated Press. “That message could put Republicans on the defensive as they try to explain why the government isn’t proactively seeking to return the money.”