Trump's IEEPA Loot Return Scandal

"Let's all please stop calling the $175B+ 'proceeds,' 'revenue,' or the like. It is ill-gotten. Call it what it is: LOOT." -- Me

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I no longer recall where I heard this, but a factor in the courts not stopping the Trump Administration from collecting IEEPA tariffs while the legal system chugged along was, I believe, a promise on its part to refund the loot should the taxes be ruled unconstitutional.

There are rumblings about this being "difficult" and taking a long time.

This is as ridiculous as calling the loot by any other name, as Joseph Calhoun of Alhambra argues bluntly:

As an aside, let me say that a lot of the commentary I saw on the refund issue Friday was the most idiotic I've seen in a long time. I saw multiple comments to the effect that it would be hard to refund the tariffs since we don't know who actually paid them. Anyone making that argument should automatically forfeit their right to debate anything about trade policy ever again, in perpetuity. Let me be very, very clear about this. The refunds will go to the people or entities who actually wrote the check for the tariffs (or authorized the EFT or sent a wire, whatever). The refund has nothing to do with the incidence of the tax, who bears its ultimate burden. A foreign company that reduces its border price so the cost to its US customers remains the same post tariff is, in a sense, "paying" for the tariff. But the entity that is owed a refund is still the US company that imported the item, sent payment to US Customs and Border Protection for the tariff and collected the goods from customs. There is no other right legal answer. [bold added]

Thank you, Mr. Calhoun.

I'll close by naming the all too predictable scandal to come, with the example I gave after the above quote of the use of the word loot in a sentence:

After SCOTUS found the IEEPA tariffs unconstitutional, Trump dragged his feet on repaying the LOOT back to his victims.

On top of this scandal, those who lost businesses and livelihoods to Trump's mad whims cannot took forward even to that remote possibility, although there will be some Trump will attempt to pay off with loot aquired from others through past taxes and future inflation.

-- CAV