Costco sues Donald Trump adminstration for not ‘winning’ like he said he would

Costco Wholesale has taken the Donald Trump administration to court and is formally asking the court to consider all tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act unlawful.

When Trump first announced his bid for the White House, he made a seemingly innocuous statement by his standards when he claimed: there will be so much winning you’ll be tired of winning. At some point he decided tariffs were one way he could ensure this. Well, now after $205 billion has been collected in tariffs as of Oct. 2025, Costco Wholesale wants to know why it’s seeing lost revenue instead of the promised winnings.

NBC reports that Costco’s lawyer has released a statement that in part read, “Because IEEPA does not clearly authorize the President to set tariffs … the Challenged Tariff Orders cannot stand and the defendants are not authorized to implement and collect them.” Simultaneously, the Supreme Court is also hearing oral arguments that are challenging the legality of Trump’s tariff agenda that was implemented early in his second administration.

Costco has yet to reveal how much revenue they have lost due to the tariffs. But according to the Customs and Border Protection, importers have paid a sum total of $90 billion. When the tariffs were first enforced — there were reports across the country of running empty ports because of how unprepared they were for the new policies despite Trump promising it throughout his campaign. The promise was that while initially the cost would be on the retailer’s side, eventually things would balance out and Trump would essentially “win” his trade war.

However, pressure started mounting on the administration and Trump had to fly out and personally negotiate with China. And despite him claiming the negotiation went better than the media gave him credit for, soon he was plotting a bailout for farmers using the tariff revenue collected. Which was at the very least ironic considering that the trade war had caused China to retaliate by stopping their importing of US grown cash crops such as soybeans. It became apparent that the Trump administration was trying to get the credit for lighting a fire and then more credit for extinguishing — but wanted none of the blame for the mess the ash of the already burnt objects made.

Costco’s Chief Financial Officer, Gary Millerchip, was forced in May to give a clearer picture of how the Trump tariffs would affect their bottom line. Millerchip told the company’s investors that only a third of their products were imported products. As for China — which got the most stringent of Trump’s tariffs — they only consist of 8% of Costco’s sales.

Where Costco has been feeling the pinch of the tariffs is reportedly through their fresh food items. According to Millerchip, Central and South America provide key items that go into that particular section of their store. And Costco chose not to increase the prices of the fresh food because “they are key staple items.”

Costco is not the only company that is seeking a refund from the Trump administration through a lawsuit. Cosmetic giant Revlon, Kawasaki, and Yokohama Tire are other companies with ongoing lawsuits against the administration’s tariffs.