President Donald Trump suggested last month that he would monitor companies that did not seek refunds on tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping global mandates.
At the beginning, some large companies like Amazon appeared hesitant to ask for a refund, fearing offending the often transactional president and ending up in his crosshairs, CNBC reported earlier this year. But today, some of America’s largest companies Walmart has Apple confirmed that they were seeking what was owed to them, whatever the consequences.
Home deposit, General engines, John Deere, FedEx And Costco are among other major U.S. companies that have said they are trying to get refunds. These moves may not represent a sea change in how companies handle their dealings with Trump. Even so, they are showing key examples of where they are willing to publicly break with the president, after he told CNBC that he would “remember it” if the companies decided not to seek refunds.
There is a strong commercial incentive to apply – as well as, for many, a fiduciary responsibility. Large companies have the opportunity to potentially recoup billions of dollars and maximize shareholder returns.
More than $35 billion in refunds have already been processed and are on their way to companies’ bank accounts, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a court filing earlier this month. The government owes a total of about $166 billion in repayments.
“I will remember it”
When Trump appeared on “Squawk Box” last month, CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin said that at the time, Apple was among the companies that had been reluctant to seek a refund, apparently fearing upsetting the president. In response, Trump said it was “great if they don’t do that.”
“Actually, if they don’t, they must know me very well,” he said. “I am very honored by what you just said.”
“If they don’t, I’ll remember them,” Trump said.
The comments made waves in Washington, where lobbyists and business groups say it initially prompted some importers to reconsider whether to seek the money they were owed. The companies have attempted to analyze what exactly the president might have meant with his remark, and if and how the administration might retaliate against them for following through with the process.
But the threat hasn’t deterred America’s biggest companies from trying to recoup what they paid in tariffs. Take America’s largest retailer Walmart, which drew Trump’s ire last year when it said it might have to raise prices in response to tariffs, prompting Trump to tell the retailer to “eat the tariffs” and warn that he would “watch.”
In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey confirmed that the company had asked to get back the money it paid for so-called IEEPA rates, but that it did not expect a major windfall if and when it was refunded.
“We’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to participate in these reimbursements. For us, it’s a relatively small part of our overall business,” Rainey said in discussing the company’s first-quarter financial results. “To be eligible for these refunds, you have to be the importer of record, and for us, where we are the importer of record, that’s about half of 1% of our U.S. sales.”
In its last full fiscal year 2026, Walmart US reported net sales of $483 billion, or half of 1% would total about $2.42 billion. While that total is more than many companies’ annual revenue, Rainey said it’s hardly significant for a company that had more than $713 billion in total revenue last fiscal year.
Still, “every little bit counts,” he said.
“We will prioritize these refunds if and when we get them invested in pricing for our customers,” he said. “We recognize that given where we are right now, with both the stress on the consumer and the retention of stock gains that we’ve seen, the best return on investment on that dollar of capital is to invest in price for our customers.”
Walmart is among the companies that have said they might try to use the money to benefit customers, even indirectly. Deploying rebates to keep prices low for consumers has become a theme among companies requesting them.
“What we’ve heard the most in terms of uses is that this is going to help us avoid raising prices as quickly as we thought we would,” said Neil Bradley, policy director of the American Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a hard thing to telegraph, but it’s real.”
Walmart confirmed it was seeking money Thursday after Target Chief Financial Officer Jim Lee said Wednesday the company was “working through the process” to get a refund. Home Depot Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail also said Tuesday that the retailer requested and has “received an insignificant amount to date.”
“We assumed that this could provide a significant offset to these costs,” he told analysts.
Some companies have looked for ways to spend the refunded money in ways that would appease both the White House and their customers, a representative of an influential business group said. For example, Apple has said since Trump’s comments that it is seeking a refund of tariffs.
Apple plans to reinvest any money it recovers into “innovation and advanced manufacturing in the United States,” a top Trump priority, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on a call with analysts last month.
Meanwhile, other major companies have remained silent about their plans to recoup their tariffs.
Amazon, which was sued in a class-action lawsuit last week over its decision not to seek a refund, did not respond to requests for comment on its refund request.
Others are not ready to admit their repayment plans one way or another. Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison did not say Wednesday whether the retailer was applying.
“We’re just monitoring the situation,” Ellison said. “We haven’t said publicly whether we’ve filed a request or not, but what we have done is pay very close attention to the situation, understanding that when duty refunds are made, they are paid to everyone, and so we are currently trying to determine if and when those refunds will happen.”