For more than a year now, Donald Trump has claimed that his economy-dinging trade war is a great development for the country because of all the money “China” is paying the U.S. Treasury. “I am a Tariff Man,” he tweeted last December. “We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN.” In May, after escalating the dispute with Beijing by raising tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports from 10% to 25%, he insisted, “Tariffs are NOW being paid to the United States by China of 25% on 250 Billion Dollars worth of goods & products. These massive payments go directly to the Treasury of the U.S.” In July he screeched, “We are receiving Billions of Dollars in Tariffs from China, with possibly much more to come. These Tariffs are paid for by China devaluing & pumping, not by the U.S. taxpayer!” A month later it was: “Massive amounts of money from China and other parts of the world is pouring into the United States for reasons of safety, investment, and interest rates! We are in a very strong position.… A beautiful thing to watch!”

Of course, as everyone outside of the Oval Office and his most blindly loyal followers know, tariffs are not paid for by China but by U.S. companies. If those companies manage to stay in business at all, the costs are then passed on to American consumers, a giant point of clarification that’s been noted by economists, analysts, and the media, and which was conceded by National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow in May. And on Tuesday the president himself admitted it!

Speaking to reporters before leaving his New Jersey golf course, Trump explained the reason the administration decided to wait until December 15 to impose new tariffs on goods like cell phones, laptops, video game consoles, shoes, and other consumer products. “We’re doing this for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers,” he said, adding that “so far they’ve had virtually none.” Indeed, the new tariffs would have had a big impact on consumers, with Webush Securities estimating the cost of an iPhone would have increased by between $75 and $100. “I think the president wanted to avoid being the Grinch who stole Christmas,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “These delayed tariff hikes would have landed squarely on American consumers.”

Of course, despite literally coming right out and saying the tariffs would hurt the U.S., Trump will obviously never admit such a thing, nor will he admit that his ongoing trade war has pushed the manufacturing industry to the brink of recession, or that farmers have been royally fucked, or that stocks had their worst day of the year earlier this month because of him. That’s why despite the temporary delay, the tariffs will most likely go into effect on December 15, barring some sort of come-to-Jesus moment. Better get your shopping done now!

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Speaking of which...

The financial-services industry sees the chances of a Trump-induced recession rising: