US President Trump claimed that his protectionist trade policies have led to higher economic growth, but the country’s budget widening budget deficit tell a different tale. In the first eight months of the fiscal year, the nation’s deficit rose up to $738.6 billion, a $206 billion increase from last year. As the policies of the Trump administration has intensified the trade war with China, by levying higher duty on imports from China. The US recorded US$4.9 billion in customs duties in May, bringing the total to US$44.9 billion in the first eight months of the financial year – almost double as compared to the last year. Trump threatened China with tariff policy, while the actual burden of the tariffs was born by the American importers. According to the US Treasury Department, who presented its monthly budget review on Wednesday, 2019 ‘s fiscal year, starting from October 1, showed a revenue increase of 2.3%. Interestingly the rise in revenue was much below than the rise in spending, i.e 9.3%. The widening gap between the revenue and expenditure is said to be driven by a combination of Republican tax cuts and increased government spending. The fairly sizeable reduction in corporate tax receipts negatively impacted the fiscal deficit for both last year and this. The tax cuts would add up to about $1.5 trillion over a decade. If the deficit is projected in the form of percentage of GDP, it amounts to 4.6 percent for 2019. It would be the largest recorded deficit in a non-recession year. It is expected to stay above this level in the future. According to the forecast made by Congressional Budget Office the country’s deficit would reach $897 billion by the end of this fiscal year, up from $779 billion last year, and further rise to more than $1 trillion in fiscal 2022.