Asked about whether he would impose tariffs of 60% on Chinese goods, he said, “Maybe it’s going to be more than that.”
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised to impose a 60% tariff on goods from China. After less than three months in office, he has gone well beyond that, more than doubling his proposed 60% rate on China to its current 145%.
Trump has consistently viewed China as a problematic trading partner.
In 2024, the U.S. imported $439 billion in goods from China, and exported $144 billion there. That left the U.S. with a $295 billion trade deficit for goods alone.
For a broader measure that counts both goods and services, the U.S. imported $463 billion from China in 2024, and exported $199 billion. That's a trade deficit of $263 billion in goods and services.
"China was by far the biggest abuser in history," Trump said April 9 while defending his China tariff increases. "Somebody had to do it. They had to stop because it was not sustainable."
He took action less than two weeks into his second term, when he set a 10% tariff rate on China. On March 3, Trump doubled that to 20%. In April, he raised it again to 54%, then again to 104%.
Finally, on April 9, Trump bumped the rate to 145%. That was on top of 25% tariffs for several specific industries: steel, aluminum, cars and car parts.
China was slow to impose across-the-board tariffs on the U.S., initially raising tariffs on specific sectors such as natural gas, coal, farm machinery and farm products. But on April 4, China retaliated with a 34% across-the-board tariff on the U.S., then raised it to 84% on April 9 and 125% on April 11.
Trump has expressed openness to negotiations, but as of April 11, no negotiations appeared to be imminent.
"If the U.S. truly wants to resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation, it should adopt an attitude of equality, respect and mutual benefit," China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, according to The Associated Press.
Trump has had a start-and-stop approach to tariffs throughout the first few months of his second term, so it's not clear how long the 145% across-the-board tariffs on China will stay in place, or whether they could rise further.
For now, though, he's overshot the 60% target from his campaign, so we rate this Promise Kept.
As a candidate, President Donald Trump talked a lot about raising tariffs. The first one he has officially implemented is on China, the United States' biggest source of imports.
Asked during the campaign whether he would impose tariffs of 60% on Chinese goods, Trump said, "Maybe it's going to be more than that."
Trump hasn't gone to 60% yet. But he did start with a 10% tariff on China effective Feb. 4. Trump said the purpose was to hold China "accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country."
Then, Trump announced Feb. 27 in a Truth Social post that the tariff on China would rise to 20% on March 4.
A Chinese official called Trump's tariff increase "blackmail," saying that China has made progress on antifentanyl efforts, including crackdowns on precursor chemicals and trafficking rings, Reuters reported.
In early February, China retaliated with tariffs of its own, on such products as liquefied natural gas, coal and farm machinery, as well as an investigation into Google.
Trump, who has exercised broad legal authority to unilaterally impose tariffs without congressional action, has paused the start dates for tariffs on other countries, including Canada and Mexico. So the current policies are only a snapshot in time and are subject to negotiation and change.
In Trump's first two months in office, he ratcheted up tariffs on China to one-third the level he floated during the campaign. For now, this promise rates In the Works.