President Trump said Monday that tariff revenues will soon “skyrocket,” arguing that retailers who previously stockpiled inventory to avoid the levies are running low on supplies and will have to bring in new goods under the tariff regime soon.
Trump’s comments on Truth Social came as he’s been pushing hard to make life in the US more affordable, recently cutting levies on over 200 products and promising to send tariff “dividend checks” to most Americans.
“[T]he full benefit of the Tariffs has not yet been calculated in that many of the buyers of goods and products, in order to avoid paying the Tariffs in the short term, ‘STOCK UP’ by purchasing far more inventory than they can use,” the president wrote.
“That heavy inventory purchase is now, however, wearing thin, and soon Tariffs will be paid on everything they apply to, without avoidance, and the amounts payable to the USA will SKYROCKET…
“We are already the ‘hottest’ Country anywhere in the World, but this Tariff POWER will bring America National Security and Wealth the likes of which has never been seen before,” Trump continued.
He added that he is hoping for a speedy decision from the Supreme Court, which is currently weighing the president’s use of emergency powers to enact sweeping tariffs on foreign nations.
Trump has been touting his affordability agenda in the wake of Dem wins across the country earlier this month, including New York City socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s stunning win.
As consumers grapple with inflation, Trump has vowed to send $2,000 checks to Americans “not including high income people” sometime before the 2026 midterms, using revenue from his tariffs.
Some Republican lawmakers have pushed back on the idea, raising concerns about the risks to inflation, national debt and the need for congressional approval.
Pols like Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) questioned why tariff revenue would be used for stimulus payments instead of paying down the debt, which now exceeds $38 trillion.
Ninety state officials sent a letter to Trump and members of Congress last week urging the White House to approve a plan by next July to balance the budget, The Post exclusively reported.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently cautioned that the White House would need congressional approval to send out “tariff dividend” checks. He’s also said the dividends could take a variety of forms, including tax cuts, and that any payouts would target “working families.”
Checks could cost as much as $600 billion – twice the revenue expected from tariffs, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Tariffs imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act had raised about $90 billion as of Sept. 30, according to data from US Customs and Border Patrol.
The Supreme Court is currently weighing whether Trump was within his rights to use that act to slap nations with harsh, double-digit tariffs — though he recently lifted them for some 200 products in an effort to ease consumer pain at the checkout line.
Bessent has urged the justices to make a speedy decision, writing that “delaying a ruling until June 2026 could result in a scenario in which $750 billion-$1 trillion in tariffs have already been collected, and unwinding them could cause significant disruption.”
The Treasury secretary has also said the White House could use other tools to impose tariffs if the Supreme Court deems its current approach unconstitutional.
