Trump’s retreats on tariffs have already wiped out $800 billion of expected deficit reduction, CBO estimates

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released new projections showing that recent rollbacks of President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff strategy have wiped out roughly $800 billion in expected debt reduction over the next decade. This revision comes even as tariffs remain a central point of debate in U.S. fiscal policy, particularly with the national debt exceeding $38 trillion and deficit reduction an urgent concern for lawmakers and economists alike.

According to the CBO’s updated baseline budget projections, the expected impact of tariff policy on U.S. deficits has fallen sharply since its last projections on tariff revenue in August. At that point, an effective tariff rate of 20.5% implied future deficit reduction of $3.3 trillion through 2035, and about $700 billion in interes