Officials tout trade policy success amid court battles and economic recalibration

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff policy produced record-breaking results in May, with U.S. customs revenue surging to $23.28 billion, according to the latest Daily Treasury Statement. The figure marks the highest monthly total ever recorded for tariff collections.

The sharp increase follows the implementation of Trump’s global 10 percent tariff regime, introduced after the April 2 “Liberation Day” declaration. The largest portion of collections came on May 22 alone, totaling more than $16 billion, per a separate report.

The president’s tariff agenda, enforced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has already generated $93.85 billion in fiscal year-to-date receipts. The CBP, in its April enforcement report, said it conducted 33 audits that yielded $117 million in additional duties from improperly declared imports.

Though tariffs now represent only about 2 percent of the federal government’s total revenue — which was reported at $850 billion in April — the administration argues they play an outsized role in restructuring U.S. trade.

President Trump has repeatedly claimed the policy reversal has turned a $2 billion daily loss into a $3 billion daily gain. “We were losing 2 billion a day. … Now we’re making $3 billion a day,” he said in a recent meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.

In a May 27 Truth Social post, the president stated, “I am empowered to ‘SET A DEAL’ for Trade into the United States if we are unable to make a deal, or are treated unfairly.”

White House economic adviser Peter Navarro projected that the tariffs could raise $600 billion annually — or $6 trillion over a decade — during a March 31 Fox News interview, describing the strategy as “tax cuts, jobs, and national security.”

Independent forecasts have been more conservative. The Tax Foundation estimates the tariffs will raise over $2.1 trillion in a decade.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an April 8 CNBC interview that tariff revenues may enable short-term income tax relief. However, he added that as domestic manufacturing grows, tariff collections would naturally decline, calling them a “melting ice cube.”

Legal challenges to the policy remain active. A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled against the global tariff structure, and another court blocked Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs. However, an appellate court has allowed the tariffs to remain in place during ongoing litigation.

In a May 30 interview with CNBC, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer affirmed the administration’s commitment to the strategy. “The reality is, we have this enormous trade deficit. It got worse over the Biden years,” he said. “We have to fix it.”

The latest Census Bureau data reflects a sharp contraction in the U.S. goods trade deficit, down to $87.6 billion in April — a 46 percent drop from the record $162.3 billion in March — suggesting early impacts from the policy are being felt in trade flows as well as Treasury receipts.