The Supreme Court struck down a bunch of Trump's tariffs. Now what?
Planet Money
NPR
4.6 • 30.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Supreme Court has spoken. Those big, sweeping tariffs that President Trump imposed early last year? They’re illegal.
On today’s show: Why were those tariffs struck down? Will anyone get refunds? And …what about this new 10 percent tariff the President just announced today?
Plus — a growing market for tariff refunds.
Further Listening:
- Worst. Tariffs. Ever.
- Tariffs: What are they good for?
- What "Made in China" actually means
- The 145% tariff already did its damage
- Are Trump's tariffs legal?
- Days of our Tariffs
- Trump's backup options for tariffs
- What would it mean to actually refund the tariffs?
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This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo, Mary Childs, and Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and Willa Rubin. It was edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Planet Money from NPR. |
| 0:05.6 | Okay, Kara, how do you feel? |
| 0:08.6 | You saw? |
| 0:09.9 | Yes, I saw the news and I... |
| 0:13.0 | I never thought this day would come, honestly. |
| 0:15.9 | It's like, was the Supreme Court ever going to rule on it? |
| 0:20.5 | Like, you know, we're going to be in this kind of like purgatory forever? |
| 0:25.3 | But it has come. |
| 0:26.6 | So I'm so happy. |
| 0:27.9 | This is Cara Dyer. |
| 0:29.3 | She is a small business owner in the U.S. |
| 0:31.3 | And the big news, the U.S. Supreme Court has said that President Trump's giant sweeping tariffs that he imposed early last year are illegal. |
| 0:41.8 | Dunzo. |
| 0:42.6 | This is huge news. |
| 0:43.6 | We were talking about his tariffs on products from all over the world, almost every single country, a different percentage tariff on each of them. |
| 0:52.4 | And those percentages, they've gone up and down and up and down for more than a year. |
| 0:56.2 | But from early on, there were lawsuits against President Trump, states and companies and |
| 1:01.2 | individuals saying that these tariffs, they are not legal. |
| 1:05.0 | And now a lot of businesses and people like Kara, they're thinking maybe they could get |
| 1:10.7 | some of the money they spent on those |
| 1:12.2 | tariffs back. |
| 1:13.5 | Okay, wait. |
... |
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