LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Detroit media have been critical of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The Detroit Free Press ran a 2,200 word story on Aug. 10 about the negative impact Trump’s tariffs had on a local business. The Detroit Free Press story did not mention how much money the tariffs have generated for the federal budget this year.

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Trump’s tariffs have generated $129.8 billion in revenue as of Aug. 7, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. At the same time in 2024, U.S. tariffs brought in $55.8 billion. Trump’s tariff program has generated an extra $74 billion when compared to tariff revenues from a year ago.

The German company Volkswagen reported U.S. import tariffs cost it $1.5 billion over the first half of 2025. Volkswagen has plants in the U.S. in Alabama and Tennessee.

Tariff revenues go to the U.S. Treasury and then put into the general fund.

Trump has said that the money raised from tariffs could be used to pay for interest on the national debt, or issue rebate checks to U.S. taxpayers or be used to offset the loss in federal tax revenue from his tax cuts.

The revenues are needed as the U.S. federal government has been deficit spending for decades.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the annual federal budget has been in a deficit every year since 2001, President Bill Clinton’s final budget. The largest deficit was $3.1 trillion in 2020, the year the federal government had the pandemic emergency relief funding.

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The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report in 2024 that stated the federal debt has increased from $17.8 trillion in 2014 to $35.4 trillion in 2024. It estimated the interest on the $35.4 trillion in debt was $1.1 trillion.