What President Trump Said

“In the meantime, the United States, which has never collected 10 cents from China, will in a fairly short period of time be over $100 billion in tariffs.”



False.

Tariffs imposed on imports of foreign goods do not mean another country is paying the bill. The costs are largely passed on to American companies and consumers, as recent studies from economists at Princeton University and Columbia University, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the International Monetary Fund have shown.

Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, put in place in July 2018, had raised $26.3 billion as of Aug. 21, according to Customs and Border Protection. (At the same time, he has promised $28 billion in relief to American farmers hurt by his trade war.)

It is also not true that the United States had never before imposed tariffs on Chinese imports. In the decade before Mr. Trump took office, the United States collected $8 billion to $14 billion per year from duties on Chinese imports.

What Mr. Trump Said

“We’ve picked up $20 trillion in worth. And China has lost $20, $25, $30 trillion in worth. We’re now almost double the size the economy.”

This lacks evidence.

It is unclear what Mr. Trump was referring to, but none of the typical metrics used to evaluate changes in “worth” back his description.