President Trump made clear on Friday that he opposed refunding billions of dollars that have been collected under his recently invalidated tariffs. Instead, he suggested that he could try to get the Supreme Court to reconsider last week’s ruling against him.
Mr. Trump struck his defiant note on social media, where he asked whether “a Rehearing or Readjudication” of the tariff case was possible.
The court dealt the president a stinging blow exactly one week earlier, preventing him from using a decades-old emergency law to wage an aggressive and painful global trade war.
It is almost unheard-of, but not impossible, for the Supreme Court to agree to rehear a decision. It has not happened in decades, and a majority of justices would have to agree — a highly unlikely outcome given the 6-to-3 vote against his tariffs.
Still, such a request could buy the Trump administration more time to figure out its next steps. By requesting a rehearing, the administration would presumably delay the Supreme Court from formally transmitting its original decision back to the lower courts, a routine process that usually occurs 25 days after the justices announce an opinion.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
At the heart of Mr. Trump’s frustration is the roughly $100 billion collected through the emergency tariffs that he first imposed last spring. If the administration is required to return those funds, it will be a big payday for businesses that bore the brunt of the tariffs but will deliver a fiscal blow to the federal government and its finances.
The Trump administration initially told federal judges that it would “issue refunds as directed by the court,” plus interest, if the courts ultimately found the tariffs to be illegal. But the White House has struck a far less accommodating tone since the Supreme Court ruling. Mr. Trump now claims that the process to sort out tariffs may take as long as five years.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Mr. Trump said on Friday, “that Countries and Companies that took advantage of us for decades, receiving Billions and Billions of Dollars that they should not have been allowed to receive, would now be entitled to an undeserved ‘windfall,’ the likes of which the World has never seen before, as a result of this highly disappointing, to say the least, ruling.”
Tariffs are taxes paid by U.S. companies and consumers as they import goods. Many large companies, including FedEx and Costco, have cited the impact to their businesses from Mr. Trump’s tariffs as they have flooded federal courts recently with new lawsuits seeking refunds.
Ann E. Marimow contributed reporting.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
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