Trump against federal “friendly fire”: the United States would be destroyed without customs duties

Tariff revenue has reached $183.1 billion for the current fiscal year, but the federal appeals court ruling dealt a heavy blow to Trump’s trade policy.

President Donald Trump wrote on Sunday in a post on Truth Social that the country would be "completely destroyed" without the "trillions of dollars" in tariff revenue flowing into the US economy. The statement came just days after a federal appeals court ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority by using emergency powers to impose new tariffs on imported goods.

Trump has long touted tariffs as a key source of government revenue, and just months after his sweeping trade policies took effect, billions of dollars had already flowed into the federal coffers. However, the ruling dealt a heavy blow to Trump’s trade policy, a cornerstone of his economic agenda, which relies heavily on tariffs to boost revenue and pressure foreign trading partners. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Department of Justice will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, the court allowed the tariffs to remain in force until mid-October.

Tariff revenue rose steadily from about $17.4 billion in April to $23.9 billion in May, before climbing to $28 billion in June and peaking at $29.6 billion in July. According to the latest Treasury Department data on "Customs duties and certain excise taxes," published on 28 August, total tariff revenue reached $183.1 billion for the current fiscal year. At the current pace, the United States could collect the same amount in tariff revenue in just four or five months as it did over the whole of the previous year.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously said the Trump administration could use part of the tariff revenue to reduce the national debt. "I think at some point we’ll be able to do that," Bessent said in a 19 August interview with CNBC, adding that he and President Trump were "laser-focused on paying down the debt." "I think we’ll bring the deficit down relative to GDP, we’ll start paying down the debt, and then at some point this can be used as an offset for the American people," he said. According to the Treasury Department, the national debt was nearing $37.2 trillion as of 18 August. Bessent said he wanted to revise this year’s estimate of tariff revenue above the previous $300 billion projection. While he did not provide a new forecast, he stressed that the total would be "substantially" higher.