The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law when he unilaterally imposed sweeping tariffs across the globe, a striking loss for the White House on an issue that has been central to the president’s foreign policy and economic agenda.
So…
… yeah…
According to the Fed, as of early-mid Jan 2026, you’re looking at $287 billion dollars of total Trump tariff revenue.
https://www.richmondfed.org/research/national_economy/macro_minute/2026/how_much_revenue_raised_by_tariffs_so_far
Also, over the last year, into this one, the Treasury has been massively expanding its General Account, which is functionally the checking account of the Federal Government.
Its around $900 billion right now.
Normally its more like several hundred billion, 200 b, 300 b.
Why is it so large right now?
Well, because the Treasury (Bessent) has decided to just massively shift as much of the Gov’s debt refinancing as possible, over to… short term debt issuance, like, 1 Year T bills and even shorter duration notes.
Like uh, just a few days ago, the Gov issued (refinanced) around $212 billion of debt.
So yeah, we had a one day debt rollover that… rivals the entire size of the Treasury General Account basically pre-covid.
Every 5 days, the US Gov is refinancing roughly $600 billion of debt.
… what I am trying to say is that even if the treasury were to somehow pay back around $300 billion of illegal tariff revenue…
Well, that would take a while.
Because the Treasury doesn’t have the margin to do that.
… It could very well be the case that Fed would have to print money, to buy the T Bills, so the money in the TGA… could repay the … tariffs.
This is not looking so good.