U.S. Treasury Secretary Bentsen. UPI Yonhap News. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bentsen, who has been in charge of trade negotiations for the Trump administration, was optimistic on the 5th (local time) that the Supreme Court would make a decision favorable to the administration in a tariff lawsuit.

Bentsen, who attended the oral arguments for the tariff lawsuit at the Supreme Court that day, told reporters outside the White House afterward, "I think the arguments went very well."

He added, "Deputy Attorney General John Sauer, who represented the government's position in the lawsuit, made a very strong case for the necessity of the President's authority (to impose tariffs) under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)," and "I think the other (plaintiff) side failed completely."

In an interview with Fox News, Bentsen also stated he was "very optimistic" about the Supreme Court's review of the tariffs.

He argued that the plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit claiming that the Trump administration's various tariffs were illegal, "almost embarrassed themselves. They clearly did not understand economic fundamentals. They did not understand the trade policies they were discussing."

When asked what would happen if the Supreme Court ruled the tariffs illegal and how the collected tariffs would be returned, Bentsen replied, "We will deal with it if that happens, but I am confident that it will not be necessary."

Oral arguments were held at the Supreme Court that day for lawsuits challenging various tariffs imposed by President Trump under the IEEPA.

Although Bentsen was optimistic about the outcome, major U.S. media outlets generally assessed that the Supreme Court expressed a skeptical view on the tariffs.

The justices focused their questions on whether the IEEPA's authority for the president to 'regulate' imports included tariffs, and whether the president could make decisions with significant economic impact unilaterally without explicit delegation of tariff authority from Congress.

Yonhap News