(Yahoo! Finance) - Tariff revenue totaling $26.59 billion came into US coffers in February, marking another monthly decline as the US Supreme Court struck down the lion's share of President Trump's tariffs.
The Treasury Department's monthly statement for February, released on Wednesday, followed a January tariff revenue reading of $27.74 billion.
Wednesday's release also showed that the US ran an overall deficit of more than $1 trillion between October and February — the first five months of the fiscal year.
On tariff revenues, the release marks the fourth straight monthly decline after Trump dialed back key tariffs last November. Monthly tariff revenue peaked in October at $31.35 billion.
The latest release covered the month of the Supreme Court's Feb. 20 decision striking down the tariffs imposed under a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Trump immediately moved to replace those tariffs by announcing 10% global duties for 150 days using a different authority: Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act.
The president has also pledged to raise those duties to 15% but has not yet followed through. The White House has also launched efforts to make new permanent tariffs after the Section 122 tariffs expire, seeking to implement them under different authorities.
The US government continues to run massive deficits, the report showed, including $308 billion in February alone, which far outstripped tariff revenues despite Trump's frequent claims that tariffs are balancing the budget.
All told, tariffs have brought in about $144 billion so far this fiscal year.
Ongoing questions of tariff refunds
The final tally of tariff revenue is far from certain because of ongoing lawsuits by companies seeking refunds on the IEEPA tariffs. The Supreme Court didn't specify if refunds would be required.
The US Court of International Trade recently said the government must issue refunds for all illegally collected tariffs. The administration has delayed action, while about $166 billion in IEEPA revenue collected since Trump's return to office remains up in the air.
The new data also comes as Trump is trying to refocus his message on affordability with a visit to Ohio and Kentucky on Wednesday afternoon to tout his economic wins and his tariffs. He posted to Truth Social that he would visit a business that is expanding, he said, "because of my America First Trade Policies, most specifically TARIFFS."
Yet both states have felt the negative effect of tariffs, with Kentucky even joining a recent multistate lawsuit seeking to strike down Trump's pivot to Section 122 tariffs.
Gradually declining tariff revenues in recent months
Wednesday's new reading marks a more than 15% drop from the October high since Trump backed away from some tariffs — most notably on grocery store items — as fears of tariff-fueled price increases mounted.
Tariffs have also done little so far to significantly impact the US trade deficit. The US trade deficit surged in December, capping a year in which annual totals also showed little change.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis found that the annual trade deficit in both goods and services for 2025 was $901.5 billion. The total for 2024, the last year of Joe Biden's presidency, was $903.5 billion.
January's data is scheduled for release tomorrow, March 12.
Wednesday's tariff revenue figures also underlined just how dramatically the landscape has changed in the 14 months since Trump took office.
The US collected $6.81 billion in revenue in December 2024, the last full month of Biden's term. February's collections were more than four times higher.
By Ben Werschkul - Washington Correspondent
