economics

Greta Thunberg Seeks Spotlight In Gaza After Abandoning Climate Crusade

What does an autistic 22-year-old living most of her life in 1st world decadence with her rich celebrity parents know about climate science?  Or the complexities of the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians?  Not a damn thing, really, which is why it’s confounding that such a person seems to continually garner a steady spotlight from the establishment media when it comes to environmental and geopolitical causes. 

How did Greta Thunberg become the poster child for global progressive activism when she is provably ignorant on every conceivable level?  Is it simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time?  Or, did someone call in a major favor?  Thunberg is, at the very least, no stranger to opportunism and self promotion. 

She has dealt with a series of embarrassing failures on the climate change front, including being forced to erase a 2018 Twitter post in which she predicted climate catastrophe by 2023.  Her theatrical arrests at protest events across Europe have done little to attract the kind of media frenzy she obviously craves, and so, it would appear that global warming is no longer a crusade she feels compelled to undertake.  There’s no more clout to be chased.

Instead, Greta has identified the ripest progressive bandwagon of the day and jumped aboard – Namely the war in Gaza. 

Wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh and pontificating about “genocide”, the career activist has traveled with a protest group on an aid ship to Gaza.  The sailing boat Madleen, operated by Freedom Flotilla Coalition, departed from the Sicilian port of Catania in southern Italy.  It will try to reach the shores of the Gaza Strip in an effort to bring in some aid and raise “international awareness” over the ongoing humanitarian crisis, the activists said at a press conference on Sunday.

One can argue the finer points of how the war in Gaza is being handled (by Hamas or by Israel), but few people want to hear about this debate from Greta Thunberg.

In mid-May, Israel eased its blockade of Gaza after nearly three months, allowing a limited amount of humanitarian aid into the territory.  Though Thunberg’s group claims their goal is to “break the blockade” it’s unlikely that she would be attempting this kind of promotional stunt if conditions had not already loosened. 

The political left’s obsession with the Gaza war is strange considering the majority of Palestinians are fundamentalists that violently oppose nearly every progressive ideal from women’s rights to gay pride.  However, the situation is much like the George Floyd incident in that it provides a dramatic backdrop, a tool for absorbing certain groups into the leftist fold to be used as fodder for the deconstruction of the west.

It’s not realistic, though, to expect the marriage between Muslim and woke movements to last very long.  By the time things fall apart and the disparate sides are at each other’s throats, Thunberg will surely have latched on to the next hot button protest.  

On the bright…

Gabbard Says US Speech At Shangri-La Summit Shows Commitment To Peace in Indo-Pacific

Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times,

Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, said on May 31 that the United States’ message to Indo-Pacific partners at the Shangri-La Summit was a message of peace.

“The overarching message is very consistent with what President Trump has been speaking about throughout his administration and his term in office, which is that he wants to be the president of peace,” Gabbard told Fox News from the summit.

She said the region contains many nations, each with complex histories, cultures, and needs that are full of nuance.

“There are over 40 countries who are present here, over 500 people, and that dialog, that diplomacy, that increasing of understanding between us as countries, is what is essential towards making progress towards that peace and stability, reducing the likelihood of misunderstanding, miscalculation and decisions being made based on either bad information or really just not understanding. Hey, what is the nuance that we need to see here that we may not be catching through the headlines?”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered a speech outlining the United States’ vision for the Indo-Pacific on May 31, emphasizing its “peace through strength,” approach.

Hegseth said that the United States is intending to build relationships with other nations that are of mutual benefit and respect for sovereign interests, and not of moralizing or dependency.

“We’re not here to preach to you about climate change or cultural issues. We’re not here to impose our will on you. We’re all sovereign nations. We should be able to choose the future we want to build,” he said. “On this shared foundation of mutual interest and common sense, we will build and strengthen our defense partnerships to preserve peace and increase prosperity.”

He shared the United States’ own commitment to defense, touching on initiatives such as the Golden Dome missile defense system and a 13 percent increase in defense spending, and reiterated the expectation that partner nations shore up their defenses as well.

“We are engaging with, enabling, and empowering our allies—sometimes with tough love, but love nonetheless,” he said. He added that the United States’ insistence that NATO allies own more of their own security has freed up the United States to focus on the Indo-Pacific, “our priority theater.”

These partnerships of “mutual interest” mean ambitious joint defense training as well as resilient supply chains for everyone, Hegseth said.

The defense secretary also called out the Chinese communist regime, highlighting its aggression in the Indo-Pacific, its attempts to “weaponize” the Panama Canal, the spy balloon it flew over the United States, cyberattacks on United States’ and other nations’ critical infrastructures, war games around Taiwan, among other aggressive actions. He also pointed out the absence of China’s defense minister from the summit.

“China seeks to intimidate you in your own waters,” he said. Hegseth reiterated that the United States did not “seek conflict,” but will not “be pushed out of this critical region … and be subordinated and intimidated.”

He acknowledged many Indo-Pacific…

What Is American Conservatism?

Authored by Roger Kimball via The Epoch Times,

“To be deceived about the truth of things and so to harbor untruth in the soul is a thing no one would consent to.”

— Plato, The Republic

Let me start with the genus. What is conservatism? The answer? It is cheerful allegiance to the truth. This is especially true of conservatism’s American variant. Conservatism in America has some distinctive features, traceable mostly to two things: the Founders’ vision of limited government supporting individual liberty and the historical accidents of newness, on the one hand, and geographical amplitude and separateness on the other.

Although it may sometimes seem that conservatives are constitutionally averse to cheerfulness, writing works with titles such as Leviathan, The Decline of the West, The Waste Land, and Slouching Towards Gomorrah, by habit and disposition, I submit, conservatives tend, as a species, to be less gloomy than—than what? What shall we call those who occupy a position opposite that of conservatives? Not liberals, surely, since the people and policies that are called “liberal” are so often conspicuously illiberal, i.e., opposed to freedom and all its works.

Indeed, when it comes to the word “liberal,” Russell Kirk came close to the truth when he observed that he was conservative because he was a liberal, that is, a partisan of ordered liberty and the habits and institutions that nurture it. (Is that another definition of conservatism?) In any event, whatever the opposite of conservatives should be called—perhaps John Fonte’s marvelous coinage “transnational progressives” is best, though the old standby “Leftists” will do—they tend to be gloomy, partly, I suspect, because of disappointed utopian ambitions.

Conservatives also tend to enjoy a more active and enabling sense of humor than leftists. Has anyone ever accused Elizabeth Warren of having a sense of humor? How about Rachel Maddow? Or Jamie Raskin?

The nineteenth-century English essayist Walter Bagehot once observed that “the essence of Toryism is enjoyment.” What he meant, I think, was summed up by the author of Genesis when that sage observed that “God made the world and saw that it was good.” Conservatives differ from progressives in many ways, but one important way is in the quantity of cheerfulness and humor they deploy. Not that their assessment of their fellows is more sanguine.

On the contrary, conservatives tend to be cheerful because they do not regard imperfection as a moral affront. Being soberly realistic about mankind’s susceptibility to improvement, they are as suspicious of utopian schemes as they are appreciative of present blessings.

Conservatives, that is to say, are realists. Like Plato, they recoil from the prospect of being fundamentally out of touch with reality.

In a word, conservatives are not “woke.” They strive to call things by their proper names. Like Oscar Wilde’s Cecily Cardew, they call a spade a spade, just as they prefer to call “affirmative action” what it really is: “discrimination according to race or sex.” Ditto about taxation, which they describe, accurately, as “government-mandated income redistribution,” and “Islamophobia,” which is a piece of Orwellian Newspeak foisted upon an unsuspecting public by irresponsible “multiculturalists”…

14 People Charged In $25 Million COVID Relief, Small Business Loan Fraud Scheme

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Fourteen people were arrested on May 28 for allegedly being involved in a scheme to fraudulently obtain over $25 million in COVID-19 relief funds and federally guaranteed small business loans, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington on March 10, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The individuals are among the 18 people charged in connection with the case. Four who have not yet been arrested are currently believed to be in Armenia, the DOJ said in a statement.

All of them are facing charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, false claims, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions involving property derived from specified unlawful activity, and structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements.

Law enforcement officers seized about $20,000 in cash, two money-counting machines, paper cash bands, cellphones, laptops, two loaded semi-automatic handguns, and boxes of ammunition during the arrests.

Tyler Hatcher, special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation, said the defendants were accused of fraudulently obtaining funds through the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, and other federal funding programs.

“These programs were established to assist individuals and businesses in need of financial assistance and instead were pilfered by the named defendants,” Hatcher said in the statement.

Among those arrested was Vahe Margaryan, 42, who allegedly instructed “owners of sham companies” to open bank accounts and fabricate documents to support loan applications used to purchase other fake businesses.

Prosecutors alleged that Margaryan orchestrated the scheme from 2018 to January 2025 and paid for tax returns that falsely claimed millions in revenue and tens of thousands in taxes owed.

Another defendant named by the DOJ is 77-year-old Felix Parker, who was arrested for allegedly making false statements and providing fraudulent documents, including fake tax returns, in January 2023.

Parker is believed to have received more than $2 million through a government-backed small business program, the DOJ stated.

Also arrested was 47-year-old Axsel Markaryan, who was accused of submitting fake documents to fraudulently secure more than $5 million in SBA loans in June 2023.

Prosecutors stated that Markaryan allegedly transferred at least $100,000 to a co-conspirator in Armenia just months after obtaining the loans.

Authorities also arrested Sarkis Gareginovich Sarkisyan, 37, who allegedly submitted a false application and false documents to obtain a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides low-interest, forgivable loans to help small businesses retain their staff and cover expenses during the pandemic. Sarkisyan allegedly received more than $700,000 from the program by creating a fake business.

“This transnational criminal network sought to defraud the government of millions of dollars and almost succeeded,” Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles acting special agent in charge John Pasciucco stated.

It remains unclear whether the defendants have been assigned legal representation as of publication.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 06/01/2025 – 17:30…

The Taliban Is Back In The International Spotlight

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Al Jazeera recently published a detailed piece about how India, Pakistan, and Iran are all nowadays wooing the Taliban, which is true, but they left out how Russia and China are as well while also making no mention of the newfound pressure that the US is placing upon the group.

In the order that they were mentioned, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held an historic call with his Afghan counterpart in late May, the first between officials of their level in over a quarter century.

He thanked him for condemning April’s Pahalgam terrorist attack that led to the latest Indo-Pak conflict and for not falling for fake news meant to stir trouble between them. They also discussed expanding bilateral ties. India and Afghanistan have shared threat perceptions of Pakistan, the first due to the Kashmir Conflict and the second as regards Islamabad’s alleged attempts to subordinate Kabul. Closer cooperation between them thus advances their interests but prompts deep suspicion from Pakistan.

Segueing into that country’s interests, Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring terrorist groups, which the Taliban denies. The improvement of their ties upon alleviating their resultant security dilemma could pioneer a Central Eurasian Corridor from Pakistan to Russia and beyond. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi organized a meeting between their top diplomats in Beijing in late May to that end, but it’s unclear whether any tangible progress will be achieved. Mutual mistrust might ultimately prove insurmountable.

Moving along to Iran, that country had long-standing tensions with the Taliban over water rights and migration, but its Foreign Minister just visited Tehran in an attempt to help resolve them. Whether or not that happens is another story, but Iran has an interest in sincerely doing so due to the newfound pressure that the US is placing on the Taliban, which will be touched upon later on in this analysis. The point is that ties appear to be thawing, and at the very least, tensions might remain manageable for now.

Iran’s ties with Afghanistan sharply contrast with Russia’s, which recently removed the Taliban’s terrorist designation, just hosted a delegation at the recent Russia-Islamic World Forum in Kazan where they signed several agreements, and has a grand geo-economic vision for Afghanistan that was detailed here. The aforesaid overlaps with Pakistan’s earlier mentioned connectivity plans, which partially explains their rapprochement in recent years and could position Russia to mediate between it and Afghanistan.

On that topic, China is already mediating as was written above, but Russia objectively seems to be closer to the Taliban nowadays than they are given the latest agreements that were just signed. In any case, China is poised to play a major role in Afghanistan’s reconstruction, though continued security threats stemming from ISIS-K appear to have thus far hampered the implementation of its plans. Nevertheless, these plans still remain in place, and it’s possible that they could be speedily implemented in the future.

That’s precisely what the US wants to prevent, however, thus explaining the newfound pressure that it’s placing upon the Taliban through Trump’s demand to reobtain control over Bagram Airbase…

Mustached Warmonger Muses On Trump’s Peace Efforts With Iran

It’s no surprise at all that the mainstream media continues featuring as ‘experts’ discredited war hawks and neocons who’ve gotten every war of the last 20 wars dead wrong – from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria, and the list goes on.

Former national security adviser John Bolton, who laughably deems himself a ‘realist’ – was interviewed by NewsNation’s “On Balance” program Friday evening, and the question focused on President Trump’s efforts to secure a fresh nuclear agreement with Iran, which several polls show has broad American public support.

But mustached jingoist Bolton has blasted these efforts as “fruitless” and went so far as to lay out that if Israel pursues preemptive strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities, this would be entirely “warranted”. Needless to say, Trump and Bolton long ago had a very public following out and war of words.
Image via NewsNation

“I think we’re really at a very important point here, whether, whether Trump is going to try and continue these negotiations, which I think are going to be completely fruitless, or whether Israel is going to do what it has to do to protect its very existence,” Bolton said.

Bolton himself has long had a hand in shaping Washington’s vehement anti-Iran stance, and he certainly sided with the first Trump administration’s decision to unilaterally pull out of Obama’s 2015 JCPOA action deal, which collapsed in April of 2018 (upon the US pullout).

President Trump has meanwhile declared that Iran has “sort of agreed to the terms” of a deal and will not make “nuclear dust” – an apparent reference to uranium enrichment. These words issued on his prior Gulf tour, and the statements of optimism since then, come as mixed signals continue being issued from Washington.

Trump has also said of Tehran, “They don’t want to be blown up” and that “they would rather make a deal, and I think that could happen in the not-too-distant future.”

As for blowing things up, hawks like Bolton would certainly like to blow up or sabotage the prospects of a deal, but thankfully Trump has made sure he has nothing to do with his current administration, and even very early on in this administration removed Bolton’s protective federal security detail.

Many conservatives saw the danger Bolton posed to Trump policy the first time around, and tried to warn:

John Bolton has been pushing for regime change in Iran for years.
President Trump needs to fire this guy before we have Iraq 2.0. pic.twitter.com/D0I18wgl56
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) May 15, 2019
For now at least, Bolton has to be content to bloviate from the sidelines. There remain a number of Iran hawks within the administration, as well as in Congress.

But this time around Trump’s message has been peace around the globe through the ‘art of the deal’ and projecting strength – and he’s so far shown patience on the Iran issue. “We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” he had informed Gulf leaders and the public this month.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/31/2025 – 22:45…

Trump Aims For 400 GW Of Nuclear By 2050, 10 Large Reactors Under Construction By 2030

By Brian Martucci of UtilityDive

Executive Summary:

The White House wants to deploy 300 GW of net new nuclear capacity by 2050 and have 10 large reactors under construction in the U.S. by 2030 while expanding domestic nuclear fuel supplies, according to an executive order signed by President Trump.
Trump signed three other orders on Friday to accelerate Nuclear Regulatory Commission reviews of reactor license applications and reconsider strict NRC radiation limits; expand departments of Energy and Defense roles in nuclear power plant licensing and siting; and speed up deployment of new test reactors.
Nuclear power advocates hailed the orders as a boon for the industry, but warned that staff cuts at NRC and DOE could slow progress. A representative for the Union of Concerned Scientists said the proposed reforms would make the public less safe.

Shares of publicly-traded advanced nuclear and reactor fuel companies have soared, suggesting investors see Trump’s orders as more than just words on paper. 

Oklo, the advanced reactor developer previously chaired by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, was up more than 20% since Friday afternoon. Oklo’s shares got another boost Tuesday morning as it announced a design and development partnership with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power to accelerate deployment of its Aurora powerhouses.

Shares of small modular reactor developer NuScale and uranium suppliers Centrus Energy and Uranium Energy also rose more than 20% in Friday and early Tuesday trading.

Trump’s “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base” executive order called on Wright and other cabinet secretaries to develop a national policy for spent nuclear fuel management. The order singles out recycling and reprocessing activities that could benefit companies like Oklo, which plans to build fuel reprocessing capabilities and is developing reactors that can run on recycled fuel.

Another order, “President Donald J. Trump Deploys Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security,” calls on Wright “to release at least 20 metric tons of high-assay low-enriched uranium into a readily available fuel bank for private sector projects operating nuclear reactors to power AI infrastructure at DOE sites.” 

Congress last year banned Russian uranium imports from 2028, cutting off a key supply of HALEU in particular and adding urgency to ongoing federal efforts to expand domestic supplies. 

“Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base” also calls for the DOE Loan Programs Office to prioritize support for construction of new large reactors and 5 GW of power uprates to existing reactors by 2030. It specifically mentions support for “completing construction of nuclear reactors that was prematurely suspended,” signaling possible LPO support for the completion of the two unfinished AP1000 reactors at Santee Cooper’s VC Summer site in South Carolina.

Recent changes at DOE could undermine that goal, Nuclear Innovation Alliance President and CEO Judi Greenwald said in a statement.

“Recent DOE staffing reductions and proposed budget cuts undermine the Department’s efforts and make it harder to implement these executive orders,” Greenwald said. “We urge the Administration and Congress to adequately resource and staff DOE to meet this moment.”

Greenwald said proposed NRC process…

The Champions League’s Global Appeal Is Paying Off

When the UEFA Champions League Final between Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain kicks off at the Allianz Arena in Munich today, it will be the first final without a club from either England, Spain or Germany since Mourinho’s FC Porto beat AS Monaco in 2004.

It will also be a game of European football heritage versus a new footballing power, as Inter with its rich legacy will play a PSG that has been transformed from a mid-table club to a serial league winner and global brand since the takeover by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011. Ironically, the current PSG squad, which is arguably the least star-studded in years after the likes of Neymar, Messi and Mbappé all left, is given the best chance of finally winning the Champions League, a title the club has been chasing for more than a decade now.

As the following chart shows, Inter won the Champions League (or the European Cup as it was previously called) three times already, most recently in 2010. Real Madrid is in a league of its own in terms of European triumphs, however. The outfit from the Spanish capital won 15 Champions League titles, leading AC Milan (7), Liverpool and Bayern (6) by a wide margin.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Additionally, football fans from all across the globe will be watching.

After all, it is the biggest club competition in the world, where fans get to watch star-studded teams compete for European glory and a place in the game’s history books.

As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, for UEFA, Europe’s football governing body, the competition’s global appeal is paying off handsomely. Over the past two decades, the media and commercial rights for the Champions League have more than quintupled in value. In the 2023/24 season, UEFA made €3.2 billion from Champions League rights, up from just €569 million in the 2003/04 season.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Looking at UEFA’s lower-tier club competitions, the Europa League and the Conference League, highlights how far ahead the Champions League is in terms of its status and commercial appeal. Last season, UEFA’s combined revenue from Europa League and Conference League media and commercial rights amounted to €478 million, which is just 15 percent of what the Champions League brought in.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 05/31/2025 – 07:35…

Escobar: Trilateral Summit Raises 21st Century New Silk Road Spirit

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

The first ever ASEAN-China-GCC trilateral summit earlier this week in Malaysia is even more than a cross-regional, South-South breakthrough.

The 17 nations united on the same table in Kuala Lumpur graphically demonstrated, as evoked by Malaysian Prime Minister and current ASEAN chair Anwar Ibrahim, how “from the ancient Silk Road to the vibrant maritime networks of Southeast Asia to modern trade corridors, our peoples have long connected through commerce, culture, and the sharing of ideas.”

Call it the 21st century New Silk Road spirit. And it’s no wonder China is right at its heart, via interlocked Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects – from infrastructure to trade development. China, Southeast Asia and a large part of West Asia do conform a Golden Triangle of natural resources, manufacturing and a large consumer base.

The final declaration of the Malaysia summit of course had to celebrate these “enduring and deep historical and civilizational ties”, as well as geoeconomics, in a drive to “promote economic development in the wider Asia-Pacific [note the correct terminology] and Middle East [old terminology: the correct one is ‘West Asia’].”

So it’s natural that China proposed the possibility of including the West Asian Arab nations of the GCC in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the vast 15-member trade pact that includes China and ASEAN (but not self-excluded India).

Free trade was the key theme in Kuala Lumpur – from the recently completed China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 upgrade to the upcoming China-GCC Free Trade Agreement negotiations. In contrast to Trump 2.0, the trilateral committed to “strengthen the resilience of industrial chains and supply chains”, everything geared towards long-term, tariff and sanction-free sustainable trade.

Last year, ASEAN’s total trade with China and GCC surpassed $900 billion, almost twice the $453 billion in trade with the US. And yes, trade de-dollarization is the way to go all across Asia. Right before the summit, China and Indonesia jointly announced that from now on, trade between both powerhouses is only in yuan and rupiah.

The final declaration was explicit on exploring “local currency and cross-border payment cooperation” – in tandem with promoting “high-quality BRI cooperation and seamless connectivity, including the development of logistics corridors and digital platforms”, and advancing “sustainable infrastructure construction.” The trilateral is engaged in building a web of pan-Asia connectivity corridors – the prime geoeconomic theme of the 21st century.

The trilateral had to refer to Gaza – although not as forcefully as it should. At best, the final declaration “endorses the advisory opinion rendered by the International Court of Justice on 19 July 2024, including its finding that the United Nations, in particular the General Assembly and the Security Council, which requested the advisory opinion, should consider specific modalities and further actions to bring an end to the illegal presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as soon as possible”; and to “achieve the two-State solution based on the 1967 borders in accordance with international law.”

How East, Southeast and West Asia Connect to…

Trump’s Tariffs Deliver Record $23 Billion Revenue In May

U.S. tariff revenues reached an all-time high in May as President Donald Trump’s trade policies started to fill government coffers.

According to the May 28 Daily Treasury Statement, revenues from “customs and certain excise taxes” climbed to a record high of $23.28 billion this month, up from $17.431 billion in April.

May was the first full month that Trump’s levies took effect. Most of the tax collections occurred on May 22, exceeding $16 billion.

Shortly after his April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement, the administration imposed 10 percent tariffs on nearly every country in the world.

Fiscal year-to-date—the federal government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30—tariff revenues total $93.85 billion.

As Andrew Moran reports for The Epoch Times, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says that it has been implementing and enforcing the president’s tariffs “using all our enforcement and revenue collection authorities.”

“CBP enforces tariffs through a combination of legal authority, advanced systems, and operational procedures designed to ensure that duties owed are paid,” the CBP said in a report earlier this month.

“We have fulfilled the demand and remain committed to facilitating legitimate trade while upholding a robust enforcement posture.”

Last month, the CBP conducted 33 audits, leading to the collection of $117 million in duties and fees owed to the U.S. government. Officials found that imported goods had been “improperly declared.”

Despite the sizable increase in tariff revenues, it still accounts for a relatively small portion of overall government receipts.

In April, Washington generated $850 billion in revenues, meaning levies represented approximately 2 percent of the total amount.

Despite the president’s estimates, tariffs are only producing less than $1 billion per day for the U.S. government.

President Donald Trump meets with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office of the White House on April 14, 2025. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

During a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele last month, Trump stated that the United States was “taking in billions and billions of dollars” from his trade agenda.

“We were losing 2 billion a day. … Now we’re making $3 billion a day,” he said.

The president has repeatedly threatened new or higher tariffs since the “Make America Wealthy Again” event on April 2.

“Remember, I am empowered to ‘SET A DEAL’ for Trade into the United States if we are unable to make a deal, or are treated unfairly,” Trump said in a May 27 post on social media platform Truth Social.

Looking at Revenue Projections

Senior administration officials have presented substantial revenue projections based on the president’s tariff plans.

In a March 31 interview with “Fox News Sunday,” the president’s senior trade adviser, Peter Navarro, forecast that tariffs could raise approximately $600 billion a year, or about $6 trillion over a decade.

“The message is that tariffs are tax cuts, tariffs are jobs, tariffs are national security. Tariffs are great for America. They will make America great again,” Navarro said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters during a briefing at the White House on April 29, 2025. Travis Gillmore/The Epoch Times

Economists have presented…