Trump says tariffs are going to be enough to pay down national debt. It likely won't even touch the sides
Trump says his tariff revenues will both pay down America’s $37 trillion debt and possibly fund a public “dividend,” but Treasury data shows they fall short of even covering monthly interest costs.
In exclusive interviews with Fortune, Wharton’s Professor Joao Gomes and AEI’s Desmond Lachman warned that while tariffs may slow debt growth, they won’t meaningfully reduce it.
Markets are largely skeptical of Trump’s math despite some unconventional revenue wins.
https://fortune.com/2025/08/17/trump-tariffs-pay-national-debt-interest/Open linkView original on lemmy.world241
Comments33
I've got an idea! Let's raise taxes on everyone and then give them checks for 1% of it and call it a dividend!
Trump runs this country like I ran my cities in Sim City 2000 when I was 10.
By hitting the Start a Disaster Button?
One day massive tax increases?
@MicroWave Trump and his surrogates have said at different times that tariffs would (A) pay down the national debt and (B) increase domestic manufacturing.
But if (B) happens, then tariff revenue falls. And if (A) happens, it will mean manufacturing remained overseas.
These goals are perfectly contradictory.
And if (A) happens, the money is not coming from the wealthy.
Purposefully. The goal is to destroy any faith in a functional government so it'll be easier to absorb more power and steal everything they can.
Best guess - is he so stupid he believes this or so dishonest he pretends?
Yes, he lies literally non-stop, so that's always the safe bet, but with this tariff thing in particular, he seems to sincerely believe that they're some kind of magic, and he fairly obviously has no idea how they actually work. So it seems at least possible that he genuinely believes this.
Which would take a special kind of stupid, but if there's anyone capable of it, it's Trump.
Stupid? Would you consider someone who stares at the sun without eye protection or recommends drinking bleach to prevent diseases stupid?
Only the most stable genius.
Stares at the sun during an eclipse. Need to make it explicit how dumb he is.
Depends. who is recommending that to whom?
Krasnov does whatever he's been told recently. He doesn't give half a shit what's true. As in truely doesn't know or care what's true.
Based on his actual behavior, his marching orders have been to weaken the US seconomy, betray allies (especially in alliances that might constrain Russia), and destroy US soft power in science, education and culture.
What I understand he has been fixed on tariffs since the 80's. Plus this also the man who bankrupted 3 casinos. And those are supposed to be guaranteed cash machines.
When I have moments of “he can’t really be this dumb or malicious, can he?” And think there has to be a goal, I wonder if this is it. Casinos are guaranteed cash machines, but a national government can print money. Similar thing? When you’ve run up too much debt in your other businesses, you can take your casino through bankruptcy to pay it all off. Similarly when your national government has run up too much debt, you can reset. When your currency is too strong making everything expensive, you can reset. Could he be trying a similar reset? Devalue the currency so jobs are cheap, manufacturing is cheap, and the debt is cheap? And he’s too stupid to understand the consequences of that?
And ultimately, for someone doing as much damage as Trump, questions of his intentions are irrelevant. He must be stopped.
Trump's not capable of much, but he's definitely able to be simultaneously stupid and dishonest.
The national debt has been skyrocketing.
You see there's a bug where once the national debt reaches a certain treshold it turns into credit.
If I owe you $20 that's my problem.
If I owe you $20M that's your problem.
You have to turn debt into debit and then flip everything to get credit. It's simple.
Clown. country. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Fascism is coming for Canada.
LOL. The US debt increases by a TRILLION every hundred days. Nice try Trump. The only way to ever pay that back is to tax billionaires.
So Republicans are going to massively increase the national debt by trillions of dollars and the money will be made up via the backs of the poor and working class.
Great plan, glad Americans voted for this...
We didn't. Some shady tech slipped the votes to TACOland (all swing States red? Don't believe their shit).
Last time all of the money went back to the farmers to silence them... It's not even a question of amount, they will never help the US budget because it will go towards businesses who complain about this and other ways Trump is fucking them.
Trump will be the first president under which a sovereign default will occur
Yale economist interviewed by the NYT has a slightly more nuanced opinion:
"In a world where I think we are fiscally unsustainable, debt to gross domestic product is rising much too quickly. Part of the reason for that is the tax bill that was passed last month, but it’s rising. Finding ways to raise $3 trillion is a feat, and that’s just a fact."
(She estimates $3T from tariffs)
Wow, $3T is a lot for the American consumer to pay. Does that assume payment from places that have just decided to not do business at all with the US?
Tariff revenues come from the importers, so it assumes payment from the Americans who can no longer afford to import the now-too-expensive foreign goods.
He's fucking senile. Stop acting like every time he announces something that is never going to happen that it's going to happen.
Trump still thinks other countries pay Tariffs..