Warren Presses Trump on "Theft in Broad Daylight" Amid Attempts to Avoid Paying Back $175 Billion in Illegal Tariffs to American Families, Small Businesses

Trump administration reportedly scheming to avoid paying refunds owed to Americans after recent SCOTUS ruling

Trump DOJ asked to slow-walk refund adjudication until June or later; baselessly claims that SCOTUS should rehear tariff case

"If your Administration is successful in its campaign to avoid paying back illegally collected tariffs, it would amount to a theft in broad daylight from each and every American family that has paid the price of your failed economic agenda."

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - Following news that Donald Trump and administration officials are scheming to avoid paying tariff refunds to Americans and small businesses, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed President Trump on an urgent plan to pay Americans what they're owed.

"If your Administration is successful in its campaign to avoid paying back illegally collected tariffs, it would amount to a theft in broad daylight from each and every American family that has paid the price of your failed economic agenda," wrote Senator Warren.

The Supreme Court recently struck down most of the costly tariffs that Donald Trump imposed last year, ruling that $175 billion in tariffs were collected illegally. Roughly 95% of the tariff costs will be passed on to American families and small businesses in the form of higher prices. Already, the tariffs are estimated to have cost families an average of $1,700 each.

Last week, reporting revealed that Trump administration officials are advancing a government-wide campaign to avoid paying tariff refunds, instead planning to "keep billions of dollars in tariff revenue."

Trump also baselessly claimed that the Supreme Court should "readjudicate" their recent decision striking down his chaotic tariffs, and Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) last week asked the courts to slow-walk the refund adjudication until at least June - a request that was swiftly denied.

"The fact that Administration officials are desperately searching for mechanisms to keep illegally collected tariffs is inexplicable and breaks the promise you made to the American public that you would "fight[] for [them] with every breath in [your] body,'" wrote Senator Warren.

Despite Trump's campaign promises to lower costs on "day one," prices have skyrocketed in his first year in office. The cost of everyday items has risen significantly as Americans have footed the bill for nearly all of Trump's tariffs.

"It is not too late to reverse course," Senator Warren wrote, pressing Trump to provide the American people with a plan to return the tariff payments that the Trump administration imposed on them illegally no later than March 6, 2026.

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