Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent has claimed that Trump's tariffs are helping to balance the budget — but the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board blasted the claim as nothing more than smoke and mirrors, and some misleading accounting.
"Treasury’s monthly financial report shows the U.S. collected some $27 billion in custom duties in June, up from $6 billion in the same month last year," wrote the board, a frequent critic of Trump's tariff schemes. "Since total monthly receipts rang in at $526 billion, while outlays were $499 billion, voila, a balanced monthly budget. 'Another promise made. Another promise kept,' tweeted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent."
The problem, the board wrote, is that Bessent knows full well June is always a high-revenue month, "because it’s a month when companies and individuals file their quarterly estimated tax payments."
Balanced budgets or surpluses are actually quite common at this time of year on a month-to-month basis, even without tariffs.
"Looking back to October and the first nine months of fiscal 2025, the U.S. has run a $1.3 trillion deficit. Outlays are running $318 billion higher than last fiscal year, and that figure would be even bigger if not for some accounting changes. In other words, the budget deficit is still growing, despite the tariffs and buoyant receipts from individual income taxes," wrote the board. "Individual income-tax revenue was $51 billion higher in June than in the same month last year, a 28% increase, and it’s up $174 billion so far year-over-year (9% for the year). Corporate tax revenue, on the other hand, is lower than last year by $13 billion in June and $26 billion year to date."
The reality, the board concluded, is that Trump's tariffs have only raised $108 billion since he took office — a drop in the bucket next to the "$7 trillion spending budget" the U.S. has, and set back even further by the massive deficit spending in Trump's tax megabill.
Indeed, the board concluded, Bessent's boast might do more harm than good.
"One risk of boasting about a single month in the black is that some Americans might conclude that there’s no need to cut spending, reform entitlements, or defend the changes to Medicaid and food stamps that the GOP recently enacted," the board continued. "Mr. Bessent’s budget boasts about tariffs amount to overcooking the goose, which might come back to burn him too."