President Trump says: 'We are collecting $2 billion a day in tariffs.
Yes, Trump often highlights tariffs as a big win during his speeches. Saying 'We are collecting $2 billion a day in tariffs' seems to emphasize how tariffs are generating revenue for the U.S. government.
But there are some things we need to keep in mind:
Tariffs are taxes on imports, which means that U.S. importers (often U.S. companies) are the ones paying them - not governments or foreign companies directly.
This cost is often passed on to American consumers through higher prices.
$2 billion a day translates to about $730 billion a year, which seems extremely high compared to historical tariff revenue numbers - even at the peak of the trade war between the U.S. and China, annual tariff revenue ranged from $70-80 billion.
So it’s likely that this figure is either an exaggeration, a temporary spike, or a conflation of different numbers (such as including retaliatory tariffs or expected future gains).
