This week, Trump announced a new round of tariffs on Chinese imports, further escalating America’s trade war with the nation. But while these newly-promised taxes will result in higher costs for US shoppers, Trump insisted to reporters that the trade war isn’t being paid for by Americans—a lie that Fox New’s Neil Cavuto firmly fact checked on air Friday.

"The tariffs are not being paid for by our people. It's being paid for by China," Trump told reporters on the White House lawn. "Remember this, our country is taking in billions and billions of dollars from China. We never took in ten cents from China."

That’s just not true. Most taxes on imports are paid for by the importing country. According to the International Monetary Fund, research on imports from China "finds that tariff revenue collected has been borne almost entirely by US importers." The increased fees may be absorbed by American companies, or passed onto consumers. And while Trump’s earlier tariffs were designed to hit industrial goods rather than products that most Americans shop for, the new taxes that will take effect in September promise to inflate the prices of consumer goods like clothing, footwear, and phones. So nope, the country is not taking "billions and billions" from China.

"I don’t know where to begin here," said Cavuto after airing Trump’s remarks. "But just to be clarifying, China isn’t paying these tariffs. You are. You know, indirectly and sometimes directly. This latest round of tariffs that kick in on September 1, on $300 billion worth of goods at 10 percent, that will most directly be felt by consumers directly, because that happens on almost entirely consumer items rather than industrial-related items. But just wanted to clarify that; our governments don’t pay these things, you do, one way or another." Check out the moment below.

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Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

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