The president’s top treasury goon appeared upbeat when discussing the likely short-changing of Americans after the Supreme Court struck down a signature economic policy.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose net worth Forbes estimates at around $600 million, steepled his fingers and smiled on Friday as he said that he has a “feeling” that the American people will “not see” the billions collected in tariff revenue. His prediction was delivered as he sat before a shining gold wall during an Economic Club of Dallas event.
Bessent’s comments came after a 6‑3 Supreme Court ruling that found President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs on imports from more than 100 countries was unlawful. Questions immediately arose over what would happen to the more than $175 billion in U.S. tariff collections.
The treasury secretary already walked back Trump’s pledge to hand Americans a $2,000 tariff “dividend” in November, saying then that the president’s promised payout ”could come in lots of forms and lots of ways.”
In a Fox News appearance later on Friday, Bessent said that if any tariff refunds were to be given out, they would be “the ultimate corporate welfare.”
“The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers,” conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned in his dissent.
In April, Trump, 79, used the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose his tariffs to “strengthen the international economic position of the United States and protect American workers.”
Yet, despite the president’s promise of a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing, factories shed 108,000 jobs in 2025, and an unnamed factory manager told the Institute for Supply Management in December that “the cost of living is very high, and component costs are increasing, with folks citing tariffs and other price hikes,” NPR reported.
A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York also estimated that roughly 90 percent of tariff costs are being passed on to U.S. consumers and businesses, rather than foreign exporters.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, companies are expected to seek refunds from the administration for duties already paid, a process multiple justices described as a “mess.”
The president, who wrote on Truth Social that a ruling against his tariffs would leave America “SCREWED!,” declared shortly after the decision that he would use a set of trade powers, known as Section 122, to impose an across-the-board global 10 percent tariff.
The uncertainty surrounding the striking down of Trump’s key economic policy comes at a time when the president’s approval ratings are at a low. Americans report struggling to afford basic costs of living, while the president has labeled the affordability issue a “hoax.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for comment.
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