“My tariffs are bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars, and are helping to slash the deficit this year by more than 25%.”

Remarks to a business forum, Nov. 5, 2025 (posted by the White House on X, Nov. 12, 2025)

The FY2025 federal deficit was $1.8 trillion, a decrease of $41 billion, or 2 percent, from fiscal 2024: nothing close to a 25 percent cut.

Tariffs did raise record revenue: $195 billion in customs duties in fiscal 2025, and CRFB attributes $118 billion of that year's revenue increase to tariffs. That was far too little to cut a $1.78 trillion deficit by a quarter.

CBO has projected that tariffs, if they persist, would reduce deficits by $4.0 trillion over 2025 to 2035. That is a ten-year projection, not a 25% cut in a single year. And the money is not coming from foreigners: the New York Fed found nearly 90 percent of the 2025 tariff burden fell on U.S. firms and consumers.