CNBC has brutally fact-checked President Donald Trump’s claims that his tariffs are making the U.S. billions of dollars every day.
The network spoke with officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, who appeared to contradict Trump’s claims that his levies are having the desired effect. Before he put a 90-day pause on his supercharged “Liberation Day” duties, Trump claimed, “We’re making a fortune with tariffs—$2 billion a day.”
However, CBP officials told CNBC Monday that “since April 5, CBP has collected over $500 million under the new reciprocal tariffs, contributing to more than $21 billion in total tariff revenue from 15 presidential trade actions implemented since Jan 20, 2025.”
Easy math suggests that $2 billion daily since April 5 would mean $24 billion in tariff revenue, more than the total the CBP says it has collected since Trump officially re-took office in January.
On Apr. 2, so-called “Liberation Day,” Trump instituted a 10% baseline tariff on all goods entering the U.S., with steeper reciprocal taxes on specific trading partners he believes have been “ripping off” the United States for years. These include a 34 percent rate for China, 20 percent for the European Union, and 46 percent for Vietnam.
After Trump hit pause on his these tariffs earlier this month (China excepted), he caused a glitch that made it hard for border officials to determine who would get hit with what levy.
A code that was supposed to exempt all freight that was already on the water and headed for the U.S. stopped working for 10 hours, meaning that in that window some shipments were subject to the original tariff rate.
In boasting about managing this hiccup, the CBP inadvertently contradicted Trump again. “Even during the brief glitch, CBP’s average $250 million/day revenue stream remained uninterrupted,” an official said.
Trump has often boasted that his plan is working, but even the Treasury Department’s daily figures have contradicted him.
The latest data, from Monday, showed that just $305 million was collected upon entry that day—again, a far cry from Trump’s inflated figures. Data from Apr. 8, which included the impact of some of Trump’s earlier tariffs, amounted to just $192 million.
It is unclear where Trump plucked the $2 billion figure from, but it could have emanated from his trade adviser Peter Navarro claiming the tariffs would raise $700 billion a year. Divide by 365 and you get just about $1.9 billion per day.
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