When Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick tweeted out a Wall Street Journal article that said the Donald Trump-imposed tariffs had “generated $37.8 billion in revenue for the U.S. in April and May,” he was probably expecting some MAGA back-slapping.
That dutifully arrived in the form of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, with his fellow Donald Trump acolyte retweeting Lutnick’s X post.
Except neither of them, apparently, appeared to have read beyond the first paragraph. For there, not exactly hidden, was the phrase: “The tally, while a big jump, still falls short of the amount Trump has said the U.S. is raking in.”
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In an article published on Wednesday, headlined “Here’s How Much Money the U.S. Is Earning From Tariffs, in Charts,” the Journal analyzed Treasury data.
It said the government had made $37.8 billion in total in duties after President Trump imposed tariffs on a range of sectors, including “steel, aluminum, cars, and goods from China, Mexico, and Canada”—$15.6 billion in April and $22 billion in May.
However, compared to what Trump has said tariffs were bringing into U.S. coffers, this is some way off—between 70 percent and 82 percent less, according to Daily Beast analysis, in fact, depending on which of Trump’s claims to credit.
Before his 90-day pause, Trump had claimed on April 8, “We’re making a fortune with tariff. $2bn a day.”
Then, just two days later, on April 10, he went further still in a Cabinet meeting, saying that “the number is probably $3.5 billion a day,” per FactCheck.Org.
With 61 days in April and May, that would have worked out to either $122 billion or $213.5 billion, respectively, which would work out at $84 billion or $178 billion less than the government’s own official figures tweeted out by Trump’s close friend Lutnick.
The White House dismissed the discrepancy in a statement to the Daily Beast.
“Reporting that focuses on pedantic hair-splitting is missing the point: President Trump’s trade and economic policies are generating record amounts of tariff revenue for the federal government and have now delivered four consecutive expectation-beating inflation and job reports,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai said. “With trillions in historic investment commitments by industry leaders ranging from Apple to GM, the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for a long-term restoration of American Greatness while delivering economic relief for the American people.”
