Donald Trump has made a political career by making absurd claims about the world. It started with his first major entree into national politics, which was the claim that President Obama was actually born in Kenya, not the United States.

Trump never produced any evidence for this assertion but ran around the country claiming that Obama was not qualified to be president, as a result of being born outside the country. He only gave up this absurd claim during his 2016 presidential campaign and decided it was all somehow Hillary Clinton’s fault.

His next big invented reality was that he somehow won the 2020 election, even though he had zero evidence. According to Trump, there were millions of dead people who voted, millions of votes from non-citizens and millions of his own votes not counted. In almost five years he has produced zero evidence for any of these claims, but that doesn’t stop him from pushing them.

Now Trump is inventing massive violent uprisings in Chicago, Portland, and other major cities by radical leftists. Again, he has absolutely zero evidence for these uprisings. He somehow can’t produce any pictures, or other evidence, even as these cities are supposedly being burned down. The pictures we do see are of people walking dogs, playing in parks, listening to music outdoors and enjoying other activities that would be expected in cities experiencing peaceful days.

These absurd Trump claims are all outside my usual economic bailiwick, but as a fan of democracy, it’s hard not to take notice. I may have nothing special to offer in pointing out the absurdity of these Trump claims, but I do have something to offer on an absurd claim about tariff revenue.

As people likely know, Trump likes to boast about how much money the government is collecting from tariffs. Since tariffs are a tax we pay on the goods we import, it is unusual for a politician to boast about how much he is taxing his constituents, but whatever.

But beyond Trump’s confusion about where tariff revenue comes from, he also seems confused about how the Treasury accounts for it. He has repeatedly told reporters that the Treasury is getting money but didn’t know where it came from. He then tells them to “look on the tariff shelf.”

As I’ve said before, the inside of Trump’s head is a dangerous place. I have no idea what he does or does not know, but I can say for certain that the Treasury Department knows exactly how much money is coming in every month and how much is coming from tariffs.

It publishes the Monthly Treasury Statement, which has precise numbers both for how much money is coming in each month and where it is coming from, including tariffs. It is inconceivable that anyone in any position of responsibility at the Treasury would have any confusion about how much money is coming from tariffs.

In short, Trump’s claims about people at Treasury being surprised by the amount of revenue pulled in by Trump’s taxes are complete nonsense. Who knows if he believes them or not.

Dean Baker is a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the author of the 2016 book Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Please consider subscribing to his Substack.

Reprinted with permission from Dean Baker.