Senate Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent giving the Trump administration 90 days to refund money illegally collected via tariffs after Bessent said Americans likely wouldn’t see any of the money.

Twenty-four senators signed the letter sent to Bessent on Friday morning, slamming him for backtracking on a statement made before the Supreme Court’s recent decision invalidating President Donald Trump’s tariff scheme. Before the ruling, Bessent said it “won’t be a problem” to refund money collected should the Supreme Court rule against the Trump administration, according to The Hill.

The Supreme Court indeed ruled 6-3 that Trump had illegally used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in order to levy tariffs against countries he felt had slighted the United States. But last Friday, Bessent backtracked, saying that the Court’s ruling instead “pushed it back down to the International Tax and Trade Court. And my sense is that could be dragged out for weeks, months, years,” adding that “I got a feeling the American people won’t see [the $175 billion in illegally collected funds].”

READ MORE: Trump Wants to Keep Billions in Tariffs Unlawfully Collected — Here’s His Playbook

“On Friday, after the Supreme Court’s ruling, you said ‘the American people won’t see’ the billions of dollars in tariff revenue unlawfully collected from them. Then, on Sunday, you doubled down, dismissing questions about refunds as ‘bad framing,’ repeatedly insisting the matter is “up to the lower court” rather than the administration, and refusing to answer whether small business owners who bore the cost of these illegal tariffs would ever get their money back,” the letter read.

The letter lays out four demands for the Trump administration. First, for Customs and Border Protection to start processing automatic refunds for tariffs and duties, and establish a refund process with priority given to small businesses. The administration must also provide a timeline of no longer than 90 days to start the refund process, and “cease any efforts to delay, condition, or deny refunds pending further litigation.”

“The Supreme Court’s ruling was not, as you characterized it, “a loss for the American people.” It was a reaffirmation that no president is above the law. The true loss for the American people would be an administration that collected over $130 billion in illegal taxes and then refused — with a smile and a shrug — to give it back. If this administration does not act, Congress will,” the letter concludes.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he was “very seriously considering ending” support for Scouting America—formerly the Boy Scouts of America—unless it made a number of changes meant to conform to President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI executive order.

Hegseth posted a video to X on Friday morning, announcing that “The Department of War has officially put Scouting America on notice.”

“It’s time to get back to basics—and DoW is leading the charge,” the tweet read.

The Department of War has officially put Scouting America on notice.

It’s time to get back to basics — and DoW is leading the charge. pic.twitter.com/EnY9mvaFLX

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 27, 2026

In the attached six-minute video, Hegseth decries changes by Scouting America over the last 14 years.

READ MORE: Conservatives Go Crazy Over Boy Scouts Name Change Now That Girls Will Be Included

“After 2012 however, the Boy Scouts lost their way, and a once great organization became gravely wounded. Diversity, equity and inclusion—DEI—crept in. The name was changed to Scouting America. Girls were accepted. The focus on God as the ruler of the universe was watered down to include openness to humanism and Earth-centered pagan religions,” Hegseth said.

“Scouting became an organization that no longer supported and celebrated boys. They even welcomed the destructive myth of gender fluidity and transgenderism to infiltrate their membership,” he continued.

He then said that though he “was very seriously considering ending our support of Scouting altogether,” he convinced the leadership to change its policies to bring the organization in line with Trump’s Executive Order 14173. That executive order, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” was signed on the first day of Trump’s second term and orders government contractors to stop “promoting ‘diversity’.”

Hegseth said Scouting America agreed to replace its Citizenship in Society merit badge with a Military Service merit badge. In order to get the Citizenship badge, Scouts research someone who “demonstrated positive leadership while making an ethical decision.” Hegseth characterized the badge differently, however:

“The quote, Citizen in Society merit badge, that encouraged scouts to explore diversity, equity, inclusion and identity—they always mask it under a name that sounds good, it seems something else—and then asks those scouts to engage in activism on those topics.”

However, looking at the workbook for the badge, activism is not involved. Instead, scouts must answer a number of essay questions, many of which involve hypothetical situations, and require scouts to interview an “individual in your community, school, and/or Scouting who has had a significant positive impact in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion,” or “research a historical figure who meets these criteria, and discuss that person with your counselor.”

Scouting America is not an official government program. Though it became a federally chartered corporation in 1916, like Little League Baseball and the Red Cross, this is primarily an honorary designation. Scouting America functions independently and Congress has no additional control over the organization.

In November, Hegseth threatened to cut ties with Scouting America, according to The Hill. Hegseth’s proposal was unpopular, even among Republicans, according to NPR, leading him to backtrack.

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Legal and voting rights experts are sounding the alarm after a Washington Post bombshell report revealed that President Donald Trump — who has been insisting on federalizing voting and has issued an executive order to pressure states to require proof of citizenship for voter registration — is now being urged by activists to sign an executive order declaring a voting “emergency.”

The proposed 17-page order would “unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting,” the Post reported, noting that the proposal “claims China interfered in the 2020 election” which would be the “basis to declare a national emergency.”

Former Trump national security official Miles Taylor warned that the “biggest electoral crime in American history might be unfolding.”

“The president cannot seize control of state-run elections by declaring a fake ’emergency.’ There’s no statute that permits it,” wrote Fair Fight Action communications director Max Flugrath. “Reviving debunked conspiracy theories to force changes before a major election is what politicians do when they believe they’re going to lose.”

READ MORE: Comer Changes Tune After Lutnick Allegedly Lied

Flugrath added that the Post’s reporting follows up on an October New York Times investigation which found “that Trump officials discussed a fake ‘national emergency’ to force new election rules on states. A DHS official said it could allow Trump to ‘go around Congress’ and take over elections.”

“What a gift such a clearly unconstitutional executive order would be!” election security expert David Becker told CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane. “Though divorced from legal and factual reality, it would enable the courts to invalidate this power grab well in advance of the election, and confirm the clear limits to fed’l interference in elections.”

Prominent elections attorney Marc Elias wrote, “My team and I have been anticipating this for months. It is unconstitutional and illegal. The media should note: Last time he issued an EO about voting, we sued and won. If Trump issues such an order we will sue again and we will win again.”

“Far right voices in Colorado,” journalist Kyle Clark noted, “have long called for this step as a prelude to military tribunals and mass executions.”

U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said, that there is “no national emergency exception” to Article 1, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.

“States regulate elections unless Congress passes law,” he added, stating that is why Trump “desperately” wants to pass the SAVE Act, “to suppress voting.”

The NAACP called the proposed executive order a “dangerous proposal,” and “a direct assault on our democracy.”

Former WBZ-TV anchor Liam Martin commented, “I tend to think even this SCOTUS would block an attempt to federalize elections. But what Trump and his team are doing is setting the stage to declare the midterms void and refuse to seat the new members. What do we do then?”

READ MORE: ‘Theatre of the Absurd’: Melania Trump Presiding Over UN Security Council Sparks Uproar

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