Hassett says Supreme Court risks creating tariff refund problem

Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg News on Dec 21, 2025

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A Supreme Court ruling that scraps Donald Trump’s tariffs — and refunds the import fees collected — would create a major “administrative problem,” the president’s top economic adviser said Sunday.

“We really expect the Supreme Court is going to find with us,” Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told CBS’s "Face the Nation." Even if the court didn’t find in the Trump administration’s favor, Hassett argued it would be “pretty unlikely that they’re going to call for widespread refunds because it would be an administrative problem to get those refunds out there.”

The Supreme Court is weighing a legal challenge to tariffs Trump imposed on dozens of nations under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Administration officials have drawn up options for reimposing import taxes in case of an adverse ruling, while publicly maintaining that a court defeat is unlikely.

Hassett, a top contender to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair, said the challenging logistics of refunding tariffs paid on goods would deter the high court from ordering such a redistribution. Importers of record would need to receive the refunds and then distribute them to affected customers, he suggested.

Hassett said an improving economy has buoyed the chances of a plan to deliver one-time $2,000 rebate checks to many Americans. Trump has repeatedly floated the idea — with the checks funded by tariff revenue — as a salve for cost-of-living worries, though Republicans in Congress haven’t embraced the concept.

“In the summer, I wasn’t so sure that there was space for a check like that, but now I’m pretty sure that there is,” Hassett said, citing economic growth and a reduction in the government deficit.

“And so I would expect that in new year, the president will bring forth a proposal to Congress to make that happen,” he said.

Administration officials also are developing a plan to make home ownership more affordable with the aim of announcing new steps early next year.

While the 30-year fixed mortgage rate for the week ending Dec. 18 eased to 6.21%, close to a 2025 low, it remains well above the 3% rates seen just a few years ago.

“We’ve got a list of things that we’re going to present to the president,” Hassett said on "Fox News Sunday."

“I expect that most of us are going to be down for a big chunk of the week after Christmas at Mar-a-Lago going through all the plans for next year,” he said, referring to Trump’s estate in Florida. “We have a big list of housing ideas that have been vetted very carefully by the cabinet secretaries to present to the president in a week or two.”

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(With assistance from María Paula Mijares Torres.)

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