President Trump’s tariffs have added a record haul for US coffers since he rolled out the controversial “Liberation Day” policy on April 2 — but the added revenue still fell well short of the administration’s rosy projections.
Customs duties generated for the second quarter — spanning April to June — hit $64 billion, surpassing the total raised during the same period last year by nearly $47 billion, according to US Treasury data released on Friday.
The $64 billion tariff windfall in the second quarter amounts to roughly $70 million a day for the three-month period.
Trump had bragged that the levies were bringing in “$3 billion a day” during a meeting with the president of El Salvador at the White House shortly after launching the global trade war.
Since then, the administration his imposed a universal 10% tariff on most nations, with higher duties on certain sectors like steel and foreign cars — while pausing stiffer reciprocal taxes on most trading partners until Aug. 1.
A report last month by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that if Trump’s inital tariff plans became permanent, they were expected to reduce the federal deficit by $2.8 trillion over the next decade.
The report was released before Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill squeaked by in Congress. The tax and spending bill, signed into law by Trump on July 4, is projected to add nearly $4 trillion to the ballooning national debt by 2035.
A White House official, responding to ongoing debate about the erratic policy, said the money raked in from tariffs show that “there’s a method here.”
“It’s not just that countries aren’t retaliating, what we are consistently seeing now is that the president has leveraged use of tariffs, leveraged access to [the] US economy to consistently negotiate better trade arrangements with the US,” the White House official told The Post on Wednesday.
“That leverage vindicates the president and the administration’s thinking. We hold the cards. They have way more to lose than we do.”
Many economists had predicted the tariffs would re-heat inflation, which had remained fairly tame as the Trump pressured businesses to avoid passing on their higher costs to shoppers.
However, consumer prices rose by 2.7% in June — its highest rate since February.
Meanwhile, wholesale inflation as measured by the Producer Price Index was flat month-to-month, but shows a modest 2.3% increase over the past year, according to the latest data released Wednesday.
The CBO report estimated that inflation will increase by an annual average of 0.4 percentage points
in 2025 and 2026, reducing the purchasing power of households and businesses.
Inflationary pressure continues to climb as Trump’s deadline for trade deals nears.
EU officials, despite preparing countermeasures on $77.76 billion worth of goods, have yet to implement specific retaliatory tariffs.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has delayed action.
Mexico, the US’s largest trading partner, did not retaliate after being hit with 25% tariffs on non-USMCA exports. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she preferred a negotiated deal.
Some economists agree that the lack of a strong global response has shielded the US from broader economic fallout.
According to modeling from Capital Economics, a high-escalation trade war with average reciprocal tariffs of 24% would cause a 1.3% hit to world GDP over two years. By contrast, a sustained 10% rate would result in only a 0.3% loss.
A European Commission spokesperson told The Post: “We remain convinced that our transatlantic relationship deserves a negotiated solution — one that leads to renewed stability and cooperation.”
The spokesperson added that the EU “never walks away without a genuine effort, especially considering the hard work invested, how close we find ourselves to making a deal, and the clear benefits of a negotiated solution.”
“But as I have said before, it takes two hands to clap.”
The spokesperson added that the bloc “must prepare for all outcomes — including, if necessary, well-considered, proportionate measures to restore balance in our transatlantic relationship.”
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