Trump tells an absurdly brazen lie while he rants about tariffs at White House event
President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed the federal government is taking in “tens of billions of dollars” in tariffs leveled on foreign goods, suggesting those taxes are being paid by foreign nations, when in reality they are being paid for by U.S. consumers.
The President also claimed that no president before him has ever leveled tariffs on foreign goods, which is tremendously false.
“We’ve never taken in ten cents [in tariffs] until I got elected,” Trump told reporters Monday from the Oval Office. That’s a lie.
“I love the position we’re in,” Trump added, as the markets tumbled on news China may retaliate in Trump’s tariff war. The DOW has been down about 600 points much of the day, following rough days for markets Thursday and Friday last week.
Reality
The reality is tariffs were the main source of all Federal revenue from 1790 to 1914. At the end of the American Civil War in 1865 about 63% of Federal income was generated by the excise taxes, which exceeded the 25.4% generated by tariffs. In 1915 during World War I tariffs generated only 30.1% of revenues. Since 1935 tariff income has continued to be a declining percentage of Federal tax income.
