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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Politics

Fact check: Could Trump’s trade tariffs pay off the US deficit?

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick before President Donald Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, March 4, 2025 [Brian Snyder/Reuters]

One of the Trump administration’s biggest tariff boosters, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, recently said tariffs will not only energise the industrial sector in the United States but also help the government’s finances.

During a July 20 interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, Lutnick told host Margaret Brennan that the US is collecting close to $30bn a month in tariffs. “You got to remember – this is going to pay off our deficit. This is going to make America stronger,” he said.

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