End of year update
Calendar year 2025: the U.S. has collected $261.6 billion from tariifs as of Dec. 15, 2025.
Keep up with tariff income here
https://www.politico.com/interactive...ncome-tracker/
Since tariff income is supposed to (depending on the day)
- Direct Payments to Citizens: Trump has repeatedly proposed giving Americans "dividend" or "refund" checks, some suggesting an amount of at least $2,000 per person for middle and lower-income individuals. However, the White House has clarified that this proposal requires congressional approval to move forward.
- National Debt Reduction: A prominent claim by Trump is that the "massive amounts of money" from tariffs could help pay down the national debt, which is currently over $38 trillion.
- Farm Aid: His administration has previously used tariff revenues to provide economic assistance and "bridge payments" to farmers who faced losses due to retaliatory tariffs from other countries, such as China.
- Replacing Income Tax: In some instances, Trump has suggested that tariff revenues could eventually become so large that they could supplant the need for federal income taxes altogether.
That national debt thing...
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/in...illion-per-day
As of December 3, 2025, total gross national debt is $38.40 trillion. Relative to one year ago, total gross national debt is $2.23 trillion higher.
Over the past year, the rate of increase averaged $6.12 billion per day, $255.04 million per hour, $4.25 million per minute, or $70,843.42 per second.
So 2025 tariff income equaled roughly 42.65 days of 2025 national debt increase.
Or put another way
In October 2025, the U.S. paid $981 billion in net interest over the preceding 12 months.
That 2025 tariff income would only pay 27% or so of the annual interest on the national debt.
