President Trump boasted early Thursday that “billions of dollars” were now flooding into the US after the higher tariff rates he slapped on dozens of trading partners officially went into effect.
“It’s midnight!!! Billions of dollars in tariffs are now flowing into the United States of America!” he declared on Truth Social after the clock ticked over.
In a separate post, Trump said the cash flow from the sweeping reciprocal tariffs was coming largely from countries that have “taken advantage of the United States for many years, laughing all the way.”
President Trump meets with Indian PM Narendra Modi at the White House on Feb. 13, 2025. REUTERS
Workers at a leather factory in Mumbai, India, on Aug. 7, 2025. AP“The only thing that can stop America’s greatness would be a radical left court that wants to see our country fail!” he added.
US Customs and Border Protection started collecting the higher tariffs of 10% to 50% at 12:01 a.m. — after weeks of suspense over Trump’s final rates and frantic negotiations with major trading partners seeking to lower them.
Imports from a slew of countries had previously been subject to a baseline 10% import duty after the president halted higher rates that he’d announced in early April.
Since then, Trump has frequently switched up his tariff plan and hit some countries with much higher rates — including Brazil (50%), Switzerland (39%), Canada (35%) and India (25%).
Eight major trading partners, which account for roughly 40% of US trade flows, reached deals with the Trump administration to reduce their base tariff rates to 15% after long negotiations — including the European Union, Japan and South Korea
The UK won a 10% rate. Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines managed to lower their levies to 19% or 20%.
“For those countries, it’s less bad news,” said William Reinsch, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“There’ll be some supply chain rearrangement. There’ll be a new equilibrium. Prices here will go up, but it’ll take a while for that to show up in a major way.”
These are the reciprocal tariff rates that have been imposed by the Trump administration.
Workers at a garment factory in Vietnam’s Thai Nguyen Province on July 2, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
Trucks loaded with containers move through a container terminal port in Shanghai, China, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. APBut he warned that those countries with surging duties, including India and Canada, would “continue to scramble around trying to fix this.”
Separately, the commander-in-chief announced a fresh 25% tariff on Indian goods on Wednesday over the country’s continued purchase of Russian oil.
Trump has previously touted the vast increase in federal revenues from his import tax collections, which are ultimately paid by companies importing the goods and consumers of end products.
“I think the growth is going to be unprecedented,” Trump said Wednesday.
He added that the US was “taking in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs” but couldn’t provide a specific figure because “we don’t even know what the final number is” regarding tariff rates.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has claimed US tariff revenues could top $300 billion a year.
With Post wires
