Trump is making America’s money problem worse

July 27, 2026 — 11:59am

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Donald Trump keeps trying to build his tariff wall, but each time the wall is lower and built on narrower footings.

When Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April last year, they were expected to raise somewhere between $US1.5 trillion and $US2 trillion ($2.2 trillion to $2.9 trillion) over the next decade.

Those tariffs, of course, got struck out by the US Supreme Court in February, forcing the Trump administration to come up with a replacement, which it did.

As a temporary measure, using a section of the Trade Act with a ceiling rate of 15 per cent and forced expiry after 150 days, it imposed a 10 per cent duty on all imports that would raise about $US35 billion while it constructed a permanent replacement.

Those interim tariffs expired last Friday morning and were immediately replaced with a tariff of either 10 per cent or 12.5 per cent on 99.4 per cent of all goods imported to the US, other than those the administration explicitly excepted or where there is a different tariff regime in place, like the 50 per cent duty on imports of steel and aluminium.

As Trump’s new tariffs loom, Australian exporters clamour for carveouts

The latest tariffs have supposedly been imposed because all of America’s trading partners, including Australia, have failed to sufficiently crack down on the use of forced labour. In reality, they are the latest attempt to recreate the revenue stream, and the barrier to imports, ruled illegal by the Supreme Court.

Thanks to the Supreme Court, the revenue that was collected by the Liberation Day tariffs – more than $US160 billion – has to be refunded, though the administration has done what it can to slow the process and reduce the amount it must return.

It has so far, however, paid back more than $US80 billion of........

© Brisbane Times