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Donald Trump has often praised his White House economic record, despite analysis from leading experts saying his policies were disastrous and an "utter failure."
The former president has previously claimed that he launched the "fastest economic comeback in history" while increasing the national debt by $7.8 trillion during his term in office.
In one recent exchange, amid rising tensions with China, Trump said he was the first president to have brought in any money from Beijing for the U.S. Treasury.
The Claim
At a campaign event held on April 27, 2023, in New Hampshire, Donald Trump claimed that no other presidents "had gotten even 10 cents" from China into the U.S. Treasury.
During the event, Trump said, "I stood up to China like no administration has ever done before. Bringing in hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into our Treasury from China when no other president had gotten even 10 cents. Not one president got—and I literally mean—not 10 cents. We got hundreds of billions of dollars."
The Facts
The billions that Trump appears to be referring to here are tariffs he imposed in 2018, sparking a trade war between the U.S. and China.
In March 2018, the Trump administration introduced steel and aluminum tariffs to counter what the former president described as "aggressive foreign trade practices." The 10 percent tariff applied to $250 billion of Chinese goods.
A study published in December 2019 by the U.S. Federal Reserve argued that the tariffs actually caused job losses and higher prices for consumers.
"We find that the 2018 tariffs are associated with relative reductions in manufacturing employment and relative increases in producer prices," the study said.
The study also stated how the "globally interconnected supply chains" meant that there are limits to how much trade policy like tariffs can even protect domestic industries, especially as it usually means a "tit-for-tat retaliation.
"We find the impact from the traditional import protection channel is completely offset in the short-run by reduced competitiveness from retaliation and higher costs in downstream industries."
Trump balked at the suggestion there were follow-on costs, claiming in August 2019 that the impact was "virtually none."
"The only impact has been that we've collected almost $60 billion from China—compliments of China," he said.
However, while the value of tariffs on goods from China increased under Trump, he was not the only president that successfully imposed tariffs on Beijing.
Barack Obama, as just one example, imposed a 35 percent tariff on Chinese tires in 2009 and tariffs on solar panels ranging from 24 to 36 percent, reported The New York Times in 2012.
While it is difficult to calculate the impact of these tariffs in terms of cash for the Treasury, by virtue of the impositions, it can't be true that Trump was the only president to have brought in Chinese tariff dollars into the U.S.
The notion, too, that Trump brought in billions through tariffs, as explained earlier, is something of a misnomer given that according to many economists, the effects of protectionism are more closely felt among those in the country that has imposed it, not on the nations it applies to.
Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Newsweek that the "key issue is who actually pays the Trump tariffs.
"Serious research—not one of Trump's strengths—shows that they are paid by American importers and hence American business and household consumers. The tariffs are a tax on Americans, not a tax on Chinese."
In short, Trump is wrong to say that he was the only president who made money from Chinese tariffs or made a cent for the government from China (seeing as at least one other president imposed such tariffs). The claim that Trump's tariff scheme made money for the U.S. is in conflict with research that suggested U.S. citizens were economically hurt by the move.
Newsweek reached out to a media representative of Donald Trump for comment.
The Ruling
False.
Trump incorrectly claims that he is the only president to have made billions for the Treasury from China.
On the understanding that he is referring to U.S. tariffs, his immediate predecessor, Barack Obama, also introduced punitive tariffs on solar panels and tires. Even if tariffs aren't the basis of his argument, Obama's impositions on Beijing are proof that Trump is not the only president to have brought in Treasury cash from China.
Trump's claim that he brought in "hundreds of billions" for the U.S. Treasury should be approached cautiously, too. Many economic researchers believed the tariffs cost American consumers billions in spending power and led to job losses.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
About the writer
Tom Norton is Newsweek's Fact Check reporter, based in London. His focus is reporting on misinformation and misleading information in ... Read more