Trump said he'd 'remember' companies that didn't apply for tariff refunds. Many of them are anyway

More than $35 billion in refund money has already been processed and is on its way to businesses' bank accounts, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a court filing earlier this month. The government owes roughly $166 billion in refunds overall. There's a strong business incentive to apply — as well as, for many, a fiduciary responsibility. Major companies have a chance to regain potentially billions of dollars and maximize returns for shareholders. Home Depot, General Motors, John Deere, FedEx and Costco are among the other major U.S. corporations that have said they are trying to get refunds. The moves may not represent a sea change in how companies handle their relationships with Trump. Even so, they show key examples of when they're willing to publicly break with the president, after he told CNBC he would "remember" if companies decided not to seek refunds. At first, some major firms like Amazon appeared to be holding off on asking for money back over concerns they'd offend the often transactional president and end up in his crosshairs, CNBC reported earlier this year. But now some of the largest U.S. companies from Walmart to Apple have confirmed they're seeking what they're owed — regardless of the consequences. President Donald Trump suggested last month he would look out for companies that didn't seek tariff refunds after the Supreme Court struck down his wide-ranging global duties. 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 held off on applying for a refund over apparent concerns it would upset the president. In response, Trump said it was "Brilliant if they don't do that." "Actually, if they don't do that, they've got to know me very well," he said. "I'm very honored by what you just said." "If they don't do that, I'll remember them," Trump said. The comments made waves around Washington, where lobbyists and business groups say it initially gave some importers pause over whether to apply for the money they were due. Companies have been trying to parse what exactly the president might have meant with his remark, and whether and how the administration could retaliate against them for moving through the process. But the threat has not deterred the largest U.S. companies from trying to claw back what they paid in tariffs. Take the largest U.S. retailer Walmart, which drew Trump's ire last year when it said it could have to raise prices in response to the duties, sparking Trump to tell the retailer to "eat the tariffs" and warn he would be "watching." In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Walmart finance chief John David Rainey confirmed that the company applied to get back the money it paid for so-called IEEPA tariffs, but doesn't expect a major windfall if and when it is paid back. "We have availed ourselves of the option to participate in those refunds. For us, it's a relatively small part of our overall business," said Rainey when discussing the company's fiscal first-quarter results. "To be eligible for those refunds, you need to be the importer of record, and for us, where we are the importer of record, it's about half of 1% of our U.S. sales." In its most recent full fiscal year 2026, Walmart U.S. saw $483 billion in net sales, so half of 1% would total about $2.42 billion. While that total is larger than many companies' annual revenue, Rainey said it's hardly material for a business that saw more than $713 billion in total revenue last fiscal year. Still, "every little bit matters," he said. "We're going to prioritize those refunds if and when we get them towards investing in price for our customers," he said. "We recognize that given where we are right now with both the stress on the consumer as well as the retention of the share gains that we've seen, the best ROI on that dollar of capital is to invest in price for our customers." Walmart is among the companies that have said they could try to use the money to benefit customers, even in indirect ways. Deploying the refunds to keep prices low for consumers has become a theme among companies applying for them. "What we have heard most of all in terms of uses is, this is going to help us avoid raising prices as quickly as we thought we were going to have to," said Neil Bradley, chief policy officer with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "That's a hard thing to telegraph, but it's real." Walmart confirmed it was seeking money back Thursday after Target CFO Jim Lee said on Wednesday the company was "working through the process" of getting a refund. Home Depot finance chief Richard McPhail also said Tuesday the retailer had applied for and had "received an immaterial amount to date." "We have assumed that that could provide a significant offset to those costs," he told analysts. Some firms have sought to find ways to spend any refund money in ways that would appease both the White House and their customers, one representative of an influential business g