Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that tariff revenues under President Donald Trump’s sweeping trade policies will exceed earlier projections and will be directed primarily toward reducing the national debt.
In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Bessent explained that his prior estimate of $300 billion in tariff revenue would need to be revised “substantially upward.” He declined to give a new figure but emphasized that the administration’s first priority was debt reduction, not issuing rebates or dividend checks to Americans.
“I’ve been saying that tariff revenue could be $300 billion this year. I’m going to have to revise that up substantially,” Bessent said. “We’re going to bring down the deficit to GDP. We’ll start paying down the debt, and then at that point that can be used as an offset to the American people.”
Bessent noted that both he and Trump remain “laser-focused” on debt reduction. He added that once progress is made on paying down obligations, future options for returning benefits to taxpayers could be considered.
The Treasury chief said he believed the U.S. economy could return to the “good, low-inflationary growth” of the 1990s, though he warned that high interest rates were putting pressure on housing markets and households carrying heavy credit card debt. A cut in the Federal Reserve’s key interest rate, which Trump has repeatedly urged, could spark a building boom and help ease prices within the next one to two years, he argued.
The Census Bureau recently reported modest gains in new housing starts and permits for single-family homes, though high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty continue to weigh on buyers.
Trump’s tariffs have complicated the Fed’s decision-making this year, with central bank officials wary of cutting rates too soon out of concern that trade levies could rekindle inflation. Inflation has not yet returned to the Fed’s 2% target, but signs of a softer labor market have convinced many investors that the Fed will cut rates by a quarter-point at its mid-September meeting. Mortgage rates have already begun easing in anticipation.
Bessent has previously called for a larger, half-point rate cut, arguing it would better position the U.S. for growth under Trump’s economic program.
The post Bessent Says U.S. Tariff Revenues To Rise ‘Substantially,’ Focus On Reducing Debt appeared first on Real News Now.
About Author
