Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

During a press conference in mid-June President Trump claimed: “As of last week, $19.2 trillion pouring into the United States right now from all over the world. That’s the investment being made. The record was $3 trillion.

“In four years, the last administration did much less than $1 trillion, and we did $19.2 trillion in 12 months.”

Perhaps it should come as no surprise to anyone, that the main claim isn’t true.

The throwing shade at Biden is almost true, as during his term the investment in the US was slightly over $1 trillion. So had Trump called it a trillion it would have had the same rhetorical effect and been essentially true.

But the $19.2 trillion is the whopper.

Now one might make the argument that that number is nonsense because those are monies that are “pledged” or “promised.”

No, the check is not in the mail.

In effect, this is not unlike Popeye’s pal Wimpy saying “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

And you know in Wimpy’s mind Tuesday will never come.

But we don’t even have to go down that route, but rather to the official White House website, to the page with the headline “The Trump Effect.”

And on that page, as of the time of this writing (September 13, 2026, which, as you know, is three months after the Trump quote found above), there is this:

MAJOR INVESTMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Made possible by President Trump’s leadership — The U.S. has seen a surge of private and foreign investment that are fueling job growth, innovation, and opportunity across every corner of the country.

Total U.S. and Foreign Investments: $11.2 Trillion

That’s from Trump’s own website. (Technically the White House website should be the American public’s website, but you can’t look at a single page without knowing who it really belongs to.)

Note there is an $8 trillion discrepancy between those two numbers.

Looked at another way, that’s a 52.6% difference.

Would you trust Donald Trump with investing your 401(k) when there is a difference of that magnitude?

The reason this is presently of interest is the Trump Bribe Dividend announced last week, the President’s promise made to the American people.

Note well he stated: "And here is my promise. If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them ... because of our economic, tremendous economic success in history we've never had anything like what's happening, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000."

If you heard Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on any of the Sunday morning political shows you heard him describe that as being an example of Trump’s “out-of-the-box thinking.”

But there is that word promise.

Wasn’t one of the Trump 2024 campaign slogans “Promises Kept”?

Among the means to get that $1.3 trillion necessary to pay for it without adding to the current $40.05 trillion US debt (and where are the Republicans who claim to maintain fiscal responsibility: can you imagine if Biden was in office?) is from the tariffs.

Given that American businesses pay the tariffs that are then either passed on to consumers or are taken out of their profits so their shareholders get less, the tariff scheme is essentially one that takes money out of one pocket and putting it into another.

What’s more — or actually less — the tariff monies, also aren’t what they are claimed to be, especially by You-Know-Who who recently posted: “We are taking in trillions of dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT.”

He got the debt part right. But as for the trillions?

According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, from January 2025 to July 2026 the tariffs generated $298.5 billion in gross revenue.

So you don’t have to do the math: the difference between $1 trillion and $298.5 billion is $701.5 billion.

And there is even a problem with that $298.5 billion number, which is that the Supreme Court ruled the tariffs charged through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were inappropriate and were to be refunded, so that’s $166 billion out of the $298.5 billion, leaving $132.5 billion, or $867,500,000,000 less than a single trillion, to say nothing of the “trillions” we are claimed to be taking in.

The point is, this administration and its acolytes are making all manner of fanciful financial claims. 

But you are paying for the reality of the situation every time you go to the grocery store or the gas station. Your kids will be paying for it, too.

According to the US Treasury Department, the government has spent $1.27 trillion for the current fiscal-year-to-date just to service (pay interest on) the national debt. That’s more than the current defense budget and Medicare spending combined.

Here’s something to ponder: in 2024, Biden’s last full year in office, the government spent $1.13 trillion for the full year on the national debt — and the numbers have done nothing but go up under Trump.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings, where he writes primarily for the right column.