Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that tariff revenues exceeded $31 billion in August, a new high.
“Now that August is in the books, tariff revenues topped over $31 billion in the month: a new record high,” Bessent wrote on X. “As collection continues to grow, the Trump Administration is fixing the financial shambles it inherited.”
As of August 29, the U.S. generated $183.56 billion in the fiscal year.
Last week, Bessent said during a White House Cabinet meeting that revenue brought in from tariffs could exceed $500 billion annually. In July, the U.S. collected nearly $21 billion more in duties than it did in the same month last year.
The tariff data comes as the Congressional Budget Office revised its deficit projection and is now estimating that Trump-era tariffs could reduce the federal deficit by $4 trillion over ten years. This is up from the previous estimate of $3 trillion.
A U.S. appeals court recently ruled that many of President Trump’s tariffs are illegal, although the court allowed the levies to remain as the case proceeds in a lower court.
“The statute bestows significant authority on the President to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax,” the court wrote, noting that it appears “unlikely that Congress intended, in enacting [International Emergency Economic Powers Act], to depart from its past practice and grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs.”
