The Trump administration increased federal revenues by billions due to tariffs, according to the Treasury Department.
From April 1-28, the Treasury Department reported $16.5 billion in tariff collections, compared to $9.6 billion in March, according to the agency’s official data. While between $190 and $250 million typically trickled in from tariffs each day, Treasury Department records show that the majority of the $16.5 billion reported in April, $11.6 billion, was processed on one day alone — April 22.
The nearly $7 billion windfall comes as President Donald Trump has placed tariffs at the core of his “America First” agenda. Taxing imports from other countries, the president argues, will fuel the U.S. economy by incentivizing companies to bring jobs back to America and prioritizing American workers over cheaper foreign labor.
On April 16, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported it collected $21 billion in tariff-related revenue since Trump took office, short of Trump’s $2 billion per day estimate.
Trump has largely focused tariffs on the United States’s top three trading partners: China, Canada, and Mexico. He has accused the three countries of following unfair trade policies that put the U.S. at an economic disadvantage for years, spearheading the decline of once-flourishing industries in the country such as auto manufacturing and steel.
The president’s tariffs on China have emerged as the administration’s top priority as the White House refuses to back down from an escalating trade war. Rates on Beijing have been ratcheted up to a blistering 145%.
The U.S. and China are in the middle of negotiating a deal promising to alleviate some of the Trump administration’s concerns about unfair trade practices and lift some of the steep tariffs against Beijing.
“I think we’re going to live together very happily and ideally work together, so I think it’s going to work out very well,” Trump said last week, later revealing on April 23 that he hopes to come to a decision on updated tariff rates within two or three weeks.
In April, the president enacted sweeping tariffs against nearly 200 countries, placing a universal 10% tariff rate on most goods imported into the U.S.
Most of those tariffs have yet to be implemented, as Trump announced a 90-day pause to give countries more time to make a deal with Washington for potentially lower rates.
This week, Trump said he’ll announce new tariff rates for U.S. trading partners in the coming two or three weeks. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that dozens of countries have begun negotiations with the White House over the tariffs and are looking to make deals.
Trump’s protectionist trade policies have faced pushback from Democratic and Republican lawmakers concerned they violate free trade principles, erode competitive global markets, and will raise prices for Americans.
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Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee responded to the tariffs by slamming the U.S. for abandoning “free trade.” Hong Kong will deepen ties with Beijing and other countries in response to the tariffs, Lee announced earlier this month.
“The US no longer adheres to free trade, arbitrarily undermining the internationally established rules of world trade, and its ruthless behaviour damages global and multilateral trade,” he said, adding that the tariffs “will disrupt the world economic and trade order, bring great risks and uncertainties to the world.”
