Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said the federal government must refund the money the public lost from President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, arguing that it was “stolen” from American consumers.
Warren’s remarks on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins on Friday came after the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
“The Supreme Court unequivocally said that Donald Trump does not have that power, and that means the money that he has collected has been stolen from the American people,” Warren said.
Warren said the Trump administration should’ve prepared a refund plan in preparation for the ruling. Other Democrats have also called for this, including Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL), who sent an invoice to Trump for refunds to Illinois taxpayers.
The refunds for the tariffs could amount to $175 billion, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan research group Penn Wharton Budget Model.
Friday’s ruling did not explicitly address refunds or outline that the federal government could keep the money it has already collected from the tariffs.
Warren said the money the Trump administration got from the tariffs was “not legally taken.”
“I’m sorry, when somebody takes money from you illegally, that’s called stealing in the United States, and the first rule is you’ve got to give the money back,” Warren said when asked if the money should be refunded. “That money was not legally taken from the American people. It was stolen by Donald Trump.”
“Make no mistake, that it has been the American consumer is the one that has paid,” Warren added. “It’s time for American families to get their money back, and it’s up to the Trump administration to make that happen.”
Trump slammed the court’s decision as “ridiculous” and announced Saturday he is raising the 10% global tariff imposed Friday to 15%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that Americans “won’t see” a tariff refund and that a “payout” would be “ultimate corporate welfare,” hours after the Supreme Court decision was released.
“As the president said, the Supreme Court was very discombobulated on this. They didn’t give any guidance on it,” Bessent said on Fox News’s The Will Cain Show. “This could take years to litigate and get to a payout.”
Warren criticized Bessent, saying it is his job to figure out a way for the American people to get their money back that was “illegally taken” from them.
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“That is Scott Bessent’s job,” Warren said. “For him to sit there and put his fingers together, and smirk about the fact that the American people have lost on average somewhere around $1,500, $1,800, $2,000 per family, and that that’s just OK with him because he sure doesn’t intend to send it back, that is fundamentally wrong.”
“Scott Bessent is not there just to lick the boots of Donald Trump. He is there to represent the people of the United States of America and to give them back their money,” she added.
