Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#51

Post by SilverElfin » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

edot wrote: post #40

Howard Lutnick and his sons are surely happy about this. It’s almost like Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce , knew this would happen. His sons, at their firm Cantor Fitzgerald, have been offering a tariff refund product wherein they pay companies who are struggling with paying tariffs 20-30% of a potential refund, and if (as they did today) they get struck down, they pocket the 100% refund. https://www.financ…

That’s an insane conflict of interest. His sons took over the firm? It was already bad that Lutnick took over in the first place. As I recall he sued the widow of Cantor to steal control of the company after Cantor died.

But I guess this is not very surprising. I am sure every friend and family member of Trump administration people made trades leading all those tariff announcements over the last year, while the rest of us got rocked by the chaos in the stock market.

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#52

Post by kojacklives » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

mongol wrote: post #21

sschueller wrote: post #4

The global damage has been done. It took too long and it looks like it will only be partially reversed. Constitutional changes are required for other countries to trust in the stability of the US in the future.

> Constitutional changes are required for other countries to trust in the stability of the US in the future. For sure. Question is what would be enough to regain trust? I don't really see it happening

[flagged]

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#53

Post by mothballed » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

edot wrote: post #40

Howard Lutnick and his sons are surely happy about this. It’s almost like Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce , knew this would happen. His sons, at their firm Cantor Fitzgerald, have been offering a tariff refund product wherein they pay companies who are struggling with paying tariffs 20-30% of a potential refund, and if (as they did today) they get struck down, they pocket the 100% refund. https://www.financ…

I've wondered from the beginning if the whole tariff thing wasn't basically an insider operation for import/export insiders to profit off of rate arbitrage, if not outright black market operations.

That's more sadistic than I had guessed.

------ re: below due to throttling ----------

Lutnicks profit requires some 2nd order thinking. How Trump et al might profit off of import/export insider operations also requires some 2nd order thinking. My apologies for not spelling it out, although it should not take much imagination.

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#54

Post by BoredPositron » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

alephnerd wrote: post #6

raincole wrote: post #5

It feels like the US-Iran war is inevitable now.

A US-Iran conflict has been inevitable for decades. A nuclear Iran would lead to a nuclear KSA, Turkiye, UAE, Egypt, Qatar, etc and would make the Middle East more unstable. We don't need to put boots on the ground though. The reason why we had boots in Afghanistan and Iraq which led to it's unpopularity was due to our moral commitment to nation-building in the 1990s-2000s (especially after Yugoslavia). Americans no…

Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#55

Post by vlovich123 » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

edot wrote: post #40

Howard Lutnick and his sons are surely happy about this. It’s almost like Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce , knew this would happen. His sons, at their firm Cantor Fitzgerald, have been offering a tariff refund product wherein they pay companies who are struggling with paying tariffs 20-30% of a potential refund, and if (as they did today) they get struck down, they pocket the 100% refund. https://www.financ…

It’s a tax on the US economy. A tax levied by individuals rather than the government itself. An ingenious scheme. Evil, but ingenious.

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#56

Post by tfehring » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

sschueller wrote: post #4

The global damage has been done. It took too long and it looks like it will only be partially reversed. Constitutional changes are required for other countries to trust in the stability of the US in the future.

I don’t see how constitutional changes would help. The constitution already creates separation of powers, limits on executive authority, and procedures for removing an unfit president or one who commits serious crimes. But these only matter to the extent that majorities of elected and appointed officials care, and today’s ruling notwithstanding, there’s no political will to enforce any of them. The plurality of American voters in 2024 asked for this, and unfortunately we are all now getting what they asked for and deserve.

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#57

Post by xnx » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:47 PM UTC

Am I understanding this right?

1) US customer pays huge import tax on imported goods in the form of higher prices.

2) Seller sends the collected tax to the US government

3) US government will refund all/most of that tax back to the seller after this ruling

4) Seller gets to keep the returned tax money as pure profit (no refund to customer)

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#58

Post by fuoqi » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:47 PM UTC

sowbug wrote: post #50

fuoqi wrote: post #32

Let the fun of returning hundreds of billions of the illegal tariff revenue back to importers through litigation begin!

Will I get back the $17 DHL charged to collect the $1 tariff on the cat toys I bought from China? Actual event may not have occurred, but DHL flat fee is real.

Sure, if you are ready to sue the US government for that. /s

I dunno if a class-action lawsuit is realistic or not in this case or how likely a court decision stating that all tariff revenue must be refunded.

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#59

Post by mullingitover » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:47 PM UTC

It’s disappointing but not surprising that the SC left the administration to illegally bilk US taxpayers for billions upon billions of dollars for something that was facially unconstitutional.

They should’ve allowed an emergency injunction from the outset.

Re: Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court

#60

Post by ycsux » Fri, Feb 20, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

mongol wrote: post #21

sschueller wrote: post #4

The global damage has been done. It took too long and it looks like it will only be partially reversed. Constitutional changes are required for other countries to trust in the stability of the US in the future.

> Constitutional changes are required for other countries to trust in the stability of the US in the future. For sure. Question is what would be enough to regain trust? I don't really see it happening

For sure, massive damage has been done to Brand USA. Remember the 'Allegory of Good and Bad Government" in the Siena public palazzo since the 14th Century? Everyone knows USA is just a bunch of grifters