‘Time for a refund’? The movement to give Americans tariff money.

After the Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports, some Democrats are demanding that refunds be sent to Americans, the latest hypothetical plan to redistribute tariff income back to everyday Americans.

The nation’s highest court on Feb. 20 ruled that Trump doesn’t have the power to unilaterally impose the tariffs he has enacted under an emergency powers law, which he has used as part of his foreign policy strategy with ever-changing rates on targeted countries.

Democrats including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have demanded refunds of at least $1,700 per household, with Pritzker sending the Trump administration an invoice for that amount per family in his state.

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“Donald Trump has been illegally taxing your groceries, furniture, and cars for over a year. Time for a refund,” Newsom said.

Their idea follows months of speculation about Trump’s long-floated plan to send $2,000 tariff rebate checks to some Americans. The fate of that plan remains unclear.

Meanwhile, Trump has announced plans to enact tariffs using different legal mechanisms.

Americans have felt the impact of tariffs, from higher costs for products they regularly buy to surprise tariff bills in the mail. The average American family has paid more than $1,700 in tariff costs as of January, according to a report by Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation said in a report earlier in February that the tariffs cost each household an average of $1,000 in 2025.

When Trump first started referencing the idea of rebate checks for Americans, it seemed like a welcome relief for some. Some said they would believe it when they see it.

The checks have never had a certain path forward, experts have said. Tax analysts have said the revenue generated by tariffs wouldn’t have been enough to send $2,000 to Americans, and the details of the checks, including how and when they would be sent, have been up in the air.

“It’s not clear to me they were ever going to happen,” said Steven Durlauf, an economist and director of the Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

Trump first suggested that tariff revenue could be used to send checks to Americans in 2025. Since then, the amount of the proposed checks and their timeline have varied. In a Jan. 7 interview with the New York Times, Trump appeared to forget he had pledged them altogether, then said the checks could be $2,000 and be sent to Americans of “moderate” income toward the end of 2026.