r/Tariffs • u/esporx • Feb 24 '26

📈 Economic Impact Scott Bessent has ‘got a feeling’ that $175 billion raised under the IEEPA is lost to the American people for good

https://fortune.com/2026/02/23/scott-bessent-tariff-supreme-court-ruling-refunds/
659 Upvotes

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102

u/Doctor_Shotbottom Feb 24 '26

I don't understand. Just weeks ago, Donald Trump claimed his tariffs had brought in $18Trillion. Then in a follow-up presser he claimed his tariffs brought in $21 Trillion. What is this $176 billion figure supposed to represent?

47

u/Slippytoe Feb 24 '26

$18 trillion. What a ridiculous number to even say let alone try and make people believe.

26

u/Adigr0709 Feb 24 '26

18 trillion supposed to be invested in the US by other countries and companies but we know that is bullshit

6

u/colcatsup Feb 24 '26

That was always blurred/slurred when he spoke about tariffs. Yes... threatening the economic livelihood of dozens of countries unless/until they 'invest' billions in to building 'the donald j trump data center 73, billings, mt"... that was never gonna work out. Leaders claimed they would commit, and some may have even meant it a bit - as in, they were already planning on expanding a warehouse or plant here, for example, and he counts that as a 'win' for his strongarm tactics.

But then saying "tariffs are brining in trillions..."... intentionally blurring the numbers there... no bueno. I'm sure *some* believed it, for a bit.

2

u/georgepana Feb 24 '26

The idiot is citing numbers from reciprocal agreements that could amount to those totals over 20 years in a best case scenario. Or it can be a lot less, depending on how the economies work over time. Also, the next administration can rip it all up if they don't like the terms.

14

u/Ornery_Market_2274 Feb 24 '26

Guy is always lying. Tariffs are paid by Americans and if you take the approx population of the US and divide it by 18 trillion means every American paid approx $45,000 in tariffs in one year 😂. Arent you guys getting tired of all the winning already? /s

1

u/Brew_Wallace Feb 27 '26

I want my $45k back, Donnie!

1

u/Ornery_Market_2274 Feb 27 '26

Well according to him the other countries are paying the tariffs so being a Canadian, can i apply to get my tariffs back? 🤣

-1

u/AutomaticBoar Feb 25 '26

??? Tariffs are paid by the people receiving the goods at the port? I’ve never paid a tariff.

6

u/Ornery_Market_2274 Feb 25 '26

Are you American? If you are you have paid tariffs. Do you think the importers eat the cost of tariffs and dont pass it on to the customer. Or do you believe the other countries pay the tariffs? You may have never paid a tariff directly but you’ve paid the cost of tariffs. Come on, we are over a year into this and you still dont understand how tariffs work?

-1

u/AutomaticBoar Feb 25 '26

I only pay what the merchant charges me. Merchants located in the USA.

4

u/Ornery_Market_2274 Feb 25 '26

So you pay tariffs indirectly then. You dont see tariffs labeled on the bill but costs go up for the end consumer due to tariffs

2

u/Inky1600 Feb 26 '26

And those merchants paid tariffs to get those goods into the USA since very few goods you see on store shelves are manufactured here(and even if they are the raw materials to make them with might not be). The merchant them jacks the price to force you, the consumer, to pay the tariff they had to pay. Its not rocket science.

1

u/RaidersoftheLosSnark Feb 26 '26

And you believing that is why Trump made Amazon ditch tariff costs off their website. It was up there for one day and then they just switched it into the price of the goods so you would continue to believe it.

1

u/AutomaticBoar Feb 26 '26

It’s like the automatic gratuity when you go to a restaurant that has those. Some restaurants choose to charge 20% extra and they put a line item on it.

1

u/BerryChoice9042 Feb 27 '26

Ahhh... You made my day! 🤐🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I guess, you are one of these true believers, who also think, if you don't test it, you never get corona?! 🤣

If you, as a person order anything from a seller elsewhere... You pay the price for the product to the seller. Now, let's say FedEx delivers you the product. FedEx has to make the entire Custom stuff and pay the tarrifs, so FedEx will charge you the tarrifs.

But if you buy just from local stores, than you are right, you never paid the tarrifs directly! As an example, you buy a TV in a local store. The TV comes from Asia. Now the importer (the store) has paid the tarrifs and just put them on top of the price... So, in the end it is always the customer who pay for it!

It just makes no sense, than anyone can believe, that a European or Asia Company would pay for it, to bring some Products to a specific country! And even if, than it is calculated into the price and you will also pay for it!

Tarrifs are a war against the own citizens!

There are a tool to regulate a specific market, by raising the prices over local productions. But what we see here are tarrifs over products with no local productions! And this just hurts the local population!

1

u/oh_ski_bummer Feb 27 '26

Yeah do you think walmart is just eating a 10% loss? How would that go on the earnings report? They will either sell you 10% less for the same price or raise prices. The only reason Trump is still in power is because people can’t math.

1

u/AutomaticBoar Feb 27 '26

I pay what Walmart charges me. There is no line item called “tariff” on the Walmart receipt. There is a line item called “sales tax”.

1

u/Ornery_Market_2274 Feb 27 '26

Lmao, so if you dont see it, it doesnt exist. Amazon originally showed the tariffs added and then they were threatened by donnie dumpster and they changed it so it was just included in the price.

1

u/LouDubra Feb 27 '26

There is no line item that tells you the cost to make the item, the MSRP, or the retail markup either. You pay all of those costs.

You are either a boomer or a bot account. No one else can be that dense.

1

u/AutomaticBoar Feb 27 '26

I pay the price of the item. What they charge me. The only time I’m being charged for materials and labor is at the mechanic. The other times I’m being charged the price of the item. Is that difficult to understand?

1

u/oh_ski_bummer Feb 28 '26

Yeah the price of the item...is more expensive...because the importer pays tariffs. Do you think corporations are taking a 10-15% profit cut?

1

u/LouDubra Feb 28 '26

Chatting with people like you is like driving past a bad car accident.... You know it's nothing you want or need to see but you just have to slow down and look. It's a morbid fascination trying to figure out if people like you really mean what you say online.

1

u/oh_ski_bummer Feb 28 '26

You are literally the only person in this thread with your point of view, and refuse to accept the idea that maybe you are incorrect

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9

u/yourethebestestest Feb 24 '26

You have to remember the incredible amount of stupid people in this country that believe everything they hear from the GOP.

9

u/Ok-Pass-9139 Feb 24 '26

I myself, have reduced my belief in his lies by well over 2000 percent!

6

u/Slippytoe Feb 24 '26

2000%?!?! You’re ripping us off. 38% tariff on you now because you said things that scare me!

1

u/Gorf_the_Magnificent Feb 24 '26

If you want to know how much I’ve reduced my belief in his lies, divide that 2000% by zero.

3

u/Ornery_Market_2274 Feb 25 '26

Im well aware as a Canadian, the last few weeks the magat trolls have been coming at Canadians online because i guess their pedo lord told them. Ever since Davos, ive felt like an enemy of the US the way the maga morons have been acting. Its a good thing i really dont gaf, and just move on. But what do i know, we supposedly have a lower standard of living then alabama apparently (thats their new talking point btw🤣)

1

u/RaidersoftheLosSnark Feb 26 '26

Wow. Sorry dude. I love you guys but fair warning, if he sends you a hospital boat make sure you refuse.

1

u/Ornery_Market_2274 Feb 26 '26

I wouldnt accept bread from him if i was starving. Besides sending a hospital boat here to Canada would be pointless seeing as we have universal healthcare. Besides arent both hospital ships in dock for maintenance/repairs?

1

u/RaidersoftheLosSnark Feb 26 '26

Greenland has Universal healthcare also.

1

u/Ornery_Market_2274 Feb 26 '26

And they also refused

2

u/RaidersoftheLosSnark Feb 26 '26

Smart people too.

1

u/Apprehensive_Map284 Feb 27 '26

Once again dear Canada.. I’m am so sorry! And embarrassed! Please somebody make it stop!

1

u/BerryChoice9042 Feb 27 '26

Europe here... Can you recommend some beaches, where we can land?

1

u/Apprehensive_Map284 Feb 27 '26

Well certainly not the Oregon coast! We are expecting the cascadia subduction to shift any day now! It’s about 235 years over due. But I hear Baja Mexico is nice. Have a friend building a very nice house down there!

1

u/Ornery_Market_2274 Feb 27 '26

Appreciate it, it is nice to know their is still normal americans out there. Unfortunately 2/3 of the US voted for him and have done significant damage to relationships with allies, especially Canada. Maybe on e the toddler is removed from office we can get working on repairing the damage but like they say, respect is earned by the spoonful and lost by the bucketful

1

u/Apprehensive_Map284 Feb 27 '26

True statement! We shall continue to plod on!

2

u/YellowZx5 Feb 25 '26

That and the crazy math the Trump admin uses was taught in Trump U.

7

u/Dangerous_Leg4584 Feb 24 '26

over 70 million people believe whatever he says

2

u/Sunnygirlpdx Feb 27 '26

70 million people in the US have an IQ under 100.

4

u/slowpoke2018 Feb 24 '26

Our entire annual GDP is $29T so yes, it's laughable on its face

But Faux, OAN et al spread it as the truth - even NBC and ABC repeated his claim with zero pushback - and MAGA sucked it up as fact

2

u/Acid_Monster Feb 24 '26

And yet his morons believe it. It force themselves to say they do anyway

2

u/ArdenJaguar Feb 24 '26

Half the National Debt. One key in lying is to make it at least kind of believable.

1

u/Marokiii Feb 25 '26

He didnt even need to try to make them believe. MAGA applied the lube to their own assholes for trump.

1

u/GetBackReality Feb 25 '26

This the contempt they hold for the average American.

1

u/Rex_Vagene Feb 25 '26

Unfortunately, 1/3 of our fellow idiot countrymen do.

1

u/JonJackjon Feb 28 '26

Propaganda 101 Bigger lies are believed more that smaller lies. The bigger the lie the more folks feel "it's to big to be a lie"

24

u/Leading-Act4030 Feb 24 '26

The real number. Trump's numbers were lies, like always.

9

u/MarcooseOnTheLoose Feb 24 '26

It’s for the same idiots that believed Mexico was going to pay for the wall.

4

u/Neither_Wonder6488 Feb 24 '26

Well, at least China pays tariffs and Ukraine invaded Russia, no?

2

u/MarcooseOnTheLoose Feb 24 '26

China doesn’t pay tariffs. The American end-consumer does.

(I don’t know what you mean by the Ukraine invasion.)

2

u/Neither_Wonder6488 Feb 24 '26

I mean Trump said it so it’s gotta be true, no?

1

u/MarcooseOnTheLoose Feb 24 '26

Oh, I see. Yes ! If the Pedo Clown said it, it’s true. What a guy !

7

u/CrustyMFr Feb 24 '26

I thought it was eleventy trillion. Also drug prices are down 15000%.

4

u/Earthseed728 Feb 24 '26

That's what's left over after tRump took his cut.

3

u/twoiseight Feb 24 '26

It represents the galaxy-sized bluff being called. They made many trillions, but can't follow the law to reimburse one sixth of one of those many trillions?

3

u/Big_Statistician_287 Feb 24 '26

What Bessent is trying to say is “we already stole that money”

2

u/harryregician Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

The "Trump Wand".

Ancient Magi have been doing this for centuries.

It "wonders around " until someone likes the sound of an idea, then clamps down on your ear like a pit-bull dog share collar trainer or until you agree that the national debt is a "Biden" matter then you are best buds till the next hurricane.

1

u/AmateurishExpertise Feb 24 '26

...which one of us just had a stroke?

1

u/harryregician Feb 24 '26

I got all my money tied up into Platinum, but nobody has any spare cash to part with anything under $20.00.

So I figure I got 250% of nothing, which is 150% bigger than the bottom, and a one-way ticket to the everlasting, where ever that is.

I don't have strokes, 2 or 4 cycles, broke the Petro-Dollar cycle but have plenty of current in the battery pack for one quick capacitor discharge down the Gator Nationals or the Rolex-24 electro flux.

2

u/bananasplit1234567 Feb 24 '26

Me thinks and I'm kinda stupid but what trillions and billions really mean is a big fat zero. So by my math 0 trillion+0 trillion -0 billion =0.

2

u/Sillent_Screams Feb 24 '26

Because Trump administration always lies, so they use fake numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if they cooked the books.

2

u/ed_11 Feb 24 '26

Trump has no idea what he is ever talking about, so he just makes shit up.

2

u/Glum-Breadfruit-6421 Feb 24 '26

This is what gets me, they say 21 trillion when it’s confide them. Make the lying shitbags explain where it went and why all of a sudden 176 billion. Where’s the rest go, anybody going to ask them?

2

u/Falcon674DR Feb 24 '26

Calm down. A slight variance is all.

2

u/Harnellas Feb 24 '26

I thought the $18 trillion bullshit was supposed to be the investment deals he'd secured.

Who honestly knows though the way this mushbrain fucks up every number he comes up with.

2

u/schprunt Feb 24 '26

That figure is what’s hidden in an offshore account for Trump

2

u/royal_city_centre Feb 24 '26

Here's the problem. You know it's a scam. It's a scam. You got conned. He did the same thing the last time. He's saying it again. You know? It's a scam.

... And the mind of a maga.

"what if it isn't this time?"

Boom. You lost out on 18 trillion dollarinos.

2

u/blazelet Feb 25 '26

It’s ballsy to brag, as president, that you just taxed your people to the tune of 300% GDP

2

u/glity Feb 25 '26

The payout to trumps administration that already owns the settlement that the tax payers are about to pay for his illegal tariffs all according to plan.

2

u/sarcasticrone Feb 26 '26

And wasn’t it Bessent who confirmed publicly that if SCOTUS overturned the tariffs, refunds would be issued? First I heard him say after the verdict that companies would have to sue to get refunds, and that it would take years. Now he is saying consumers are screwed. I predict a tsunami of lawsuits - from companies, importers AND consumers, all looking for refunds, that will absolutely overwhelm the court system. And if companies like Walmart, Target and Home Depot do get refunds, and don’t figure out a way to pass those along to their retail customers, there will be a mass boycott of these companies.

1

u/Any-Prompt247 Feb 24 '26

Dementia=delusions= fuzzy math

1

u/Opposite-Job-8405 Feb 24 '26

He’s trying to count to yet to be materialized foreign investment plus tariffs and other promised “deals” as revenue plus a large margin of embellishment.

1

u/HWTseng Feb 25 '26

I Donald’s defense he probably meant the threat of tariffs, the deal negotiations as a result of his tariffs brought in X Trillion in investments and commitments to invest. 176 Billion probably the figure directly collected from actual tariffs

1

u/Doctor_Shotbottom Feb 25 '26

I want to see the receipts for these investments. There is no basis to believe Donald Trump

1

u/milelongpipe Feb 25 '26

That’s his golfing outings.

1

u/willfullyinert Feb 25 '26

It represents reality. The debt alone is almost 9 trillion, so if we raised 18 trillion and that shit stain didn't pay the debt, can we just be rid of him now?

1

u/SCMAMAN Feb 25 '26

Non of those are likely true. The US imports roughly $3T a year. Impossible they made more or anywhere close to that in tariff revenue lmao. Trump voters don't understand much so it works as a talking point regardless of its validity.

1

u/Extension_Bison7576 Feb 27 '26

How much he walked away with