$2 billion a day? Trump's own customs agency vastly undercuts his tariff boast

President Donald Trump has repeatedly boasted that his tariffs are collecting $2 billion in revenue per day — but that doesn't appear to be true, reported NBC News, and his own officials are contradicting the claim.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told CNBC in a statement, “Since April 5, CBP has collected over $500 million under the new reciprocal tariffs, contributing to more than $21 billion in total tariff revenue from 15 presidential trade actions implemented since Jan 20, 2025,” per the report.

This is despite the fact that the president has used the figure of $2 billion a day multiple times.

“We’re taking in almost $2 billion a day in tariffs. Two billion a day,” he said at an executive order signing on April 8. He echoed the claim during a dinner function of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

ALSO READ: 'Alarming': Small colleges bullied into silence as Trump poses 'existential threat'

Trade experts have doubted Trump's claim was accurate even before CBP came forward with differing figures.

This comes after a report last week that a "glitch" caused by an exemption code for ships that had already set sail for U.S. ports before the tariffs were put into effect forced many port officers to let tariffs go uncollected and simply take IOUs for vessels to pay the amount later.

CBP noted that even with this glitch interfering with the collection process, "CBP’s average $250 million/day revenue stream remained uninterrupted."

Trump's tariffs include new import duties of 10 to 49 percent imposed on virtually every other country's goods, with the rates depending on the size of the trade deficit the United States has with each country. Following outcry from business leaders and some lawmakers in his own party, combined with catastrophic stock market drops, Trump instituted a 90-day grace period in which all countries except China will only face the minimum of 10 percent.