TEXAS \u2014 President Donald Trump called it \u201cLiberation Day\u201d a year ago on April 2, 2025, as he ordered massive increases in tariffs for almost everything imported into the U.S. Those tariffs were used as an ongoing administration diplomatic tool, with some rolled back and some hiked up higher through the year.<\/p>\n
Then, in February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled\u00a0that the president doesn\u2019t have the authority to tax some of those imports, and the court required the administration to issue refunds. Now, businesses in Texas are awaiting those checks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
World Interiors in South Austin has been open for 20 years. The owner, Hank Cravey, said the tariffs have made it challenging\u00a0to be a furniture store owner. He imports items from all over the country, including places like China and India. One of the tables he sells, which came\u00a0from India, cost him 50% more to get to Texas than in previous years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat chair is from China. They do absolutely beautiful work. If you look at the quality of the stitching and the material is just so high quality. I mean, nobody really does a better job on upholstery than the Chinese,\u201d said Cravey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One chair from his store cost him nearly 90% more because of tariffs, and data shows he\u2019s not alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to a Washington-based lobby, We Pay the Tariffs, $28 billion in tariffs were paid by Texas-based\u00a0importers from March 2025 to February 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cA\u00a0lot of companies didn\u2019t make it through as a result of these tariffs,\u201d said Cravey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the push against them, the tariffs are generating billions of dollars for the federal government. It generated $264 billion in the 2025 calendar year, according to research from the Tax Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The White House and some economists argue that raising the cost of imports\u00a0motivates manufacturing to reshore in the United States and, in the long run, will lower prices for Americans to buy locally made goods.<\/p>\n
But in February,\u00a0the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump\u2019s executive order imposing the nearly double-digit increases on many countries wanting to send goods into the U.S. The court argued that the executive branch doesn\u2019t have the authority International Emergency Economic Powers Act and much of that revenue needs to be returned\u2014at least $175 billion worth.<\/p>\n
Cravey\u00a0said\u00a0he is still patiently awaiting his refund.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked to the lawyer. Basically, they\u2019re setting up a portal where we\u2019re going to submit all these tariffs that were collected illegally,\u201d said Cravey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 President Donald Trump called it \u201cLiberation Day\u201d a year ago on April 2, 2025, as he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3645,2160,132,134,133,5606,1570,102,223,287,82,27,1569,2053,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-236056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-app-national-politics","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-austin-headlines","12":"tag-austin-news","13":"tag-barbara-fox","14":"tag-ctv","15":"tag-dallas","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-san-antonio","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}