U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that customs duty revenues from President Donald Trump’s tariffs may top $500 billion a year, with a substantial jump from July to August and likely a bigger jump in September.

Bessent told a White House Cabinet meeting that his prior estimate of a $300 billion annual tariff collection rate was too low.

“We had a substantial jump from July to August, and I think we’re going to see a bigger jump from August to September,” Bessent said. “So I think we could be on our way well over half a trillion, maybe towards a trillion-dollar number. This administration, your administration, has made a meaningful dent in the budget deficit.”

Tariff revenue would offset the deficit increases triggered by the Republicans’ tax-cut and spending bill passed this year. CBO estimated this bill would widen the deficit by $3.4 trillion over the next decade.

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Trump’s tariffs drove July U.S. customs duty collections up by nearly $21 billion from the $7 billion collected in July 2024 and about even with the $20 billion increase registered in June. Significant increases in tariff rates for nearly all trading partners kicked in on August 7.

The U.S. Treasury reported on Monday that as of August 22, the government had collected $29.6 billion in combined customs and excise taxes so far during August, matching its total for the whole month of July. As of July 22, that combined figure stood at $7.8 billion, but customs duty collections can vary from day to day.

Bessent also noted that the Congressional Budget Office’s upwardly revised estimate last week of federal revenue from Trump’s tariffs, forecasting that it could reduce federal deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years. “And I would expect that that number could go up from here,” Bessent added.

The latest CBO estimate marks an increase from June, when it forecast that revenue from new tariffs would reduce deficits by $3 trillion over 10 years.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Mark Porter and David Gregorio)

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is prepared to impose economic sanctions against Russia if its president, Vladimir Putin, fails to agree to a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.

“It’s very, very serious what I have in mind, if I have to do it, but I want to see it end,” Trump told a reporter who asked if Putin would face consequences. “We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic because we’re not going to get into a world war.”

The president has withheld long-threatened sanctions against Putin in his latest push to end the more than three-year-long war that has so far defied his efforts at mediation.

Trump is seeking one-on-one talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin. Though Zelensky has agreed in principle to such talks, Putin has not. The Kremlin has suggested no such meeting is currently on the cards.

“It will not be a world war, but it will be an economic war,” Trump said at a White House Cabinet meeting. “An economic war is going to be bad, and it’s going to be bad for Russia, and I don’t want that.”

He added: “Zelensky is not exactly innocent, either.”

Despite slow diplomatic progress, U.S. and European officials have been discussing potential security guarantees that Washington might provide Kyiv after a hypothetical deal is reached, potentially including support by air or intelligence sharing.

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Trump has long suggested using economic tools as leverage against warring nations. He is preparing to slap 25% more in tariffs on India’s U.S.-bound exports on Wednesday over New Delhi’s Russian oil buying.

India is one of the biggest consumers of Russian oil.

Trump suggested on Tuesday that he was open to “using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine” to make peace.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Nandita Bose; Editing by Don Durfee and Nia Williams).