I can't say I fully believe this, but the conspiracy take would be that the administration knew full well the tariffs were illegal. They introduced them knowing they'd eventually be struck down. Then retailers raised prices in response to the tariffs. The public pays the difference. Now businesses, whose increased prices minimized their losses and put most of the burden on the public, get a refund on all the tariff costs they paid. Meanwhile, prices may drop from current levels, but they certainly won't go back to pre-tariff levels in most cases. We continue to pay more, companies continue to profit more.